Coffee Break
by xShadowxBeingx
Summary: What happens when Sasuke and Hinata start working at the same crowded little coffee shop? Surely some interesting things are going to occur! SASUHINA
1. crowded shops and missing things

Hinata's feet felt like cement while she stood in front of the crowded shop. She was having trouble getting through the front door because of two things:

1) she was so nervous that she was shaking

and

2) there was an abundance of people stuffed into the shop, mostly girls (which mainly caused reason #1)

Hinata knew the reason why. Inside the small coffee shop, named creatively enough The Coffee Shop, was not only coffee. There was also the biggest heartthrob in Konoha handing out the coffee: Sasuke Uchiha. He was standing stiff behind the counter, practically throwing the hot caffeinated drinks at the rabid girls that were trying to get his number along with their refreshments.

Hinata would have stood at that exact spot for a longer time, but at that moment a girl ran into the shop, banging her shoulder as she went. Hinata lost her balance and started to fall.

"Ah-!" Her yell was cut off by someone catching her from behind.

"You really need to be more careful, Hinata."

Hinata looked up to see that the grey-haired, masked man more commonly known as Kakashi was the one who saved her from a bad scrape. "Oh! Tha-Thank you, Kakashi-sensei!" Hinata blushed her usual red color and her eyes widened as Kakashi smiled at her.

"Oh, no problem Hinata." It was a weird thing. Hinata had no idea that Kakashi knew her name. She never talked to him . . . come to think of it, she never talked to a lot of people other then a couple of people in Konoha. Of course she was the Hyuuga heiress, which one would think would get her some more people to talk to, but she didn't think that many people knew that. She was simply the quiet, shy girl who always stood in the background, not wanting to call attention to herself.

Kakashi helped the young girl to her feet, and she brushed herself off, not wanting to make eye contact with him.

"Were you planning on heading in to get some coffee?"

"Y-yes . . . well, I was a-actually going to g-get a bag of c-coffee beans to b-bring back home."

"Ah, I see. Well, let me help you get in. There seems to be an infestation at the shop today." He helped Hinata to her feet and started not-so-gently pushing the other girls to get through. Hinata knew that he was the owner of the shop and that since he was late (as usual) that he wanted to get inside, so she simply kept close to him, grabbing onto his shirt lightly as not to lose him, blushing like mad as she did.

Kakashi finally bullied his way to the front of the shop and jumped back behind the counter. Grabbing his apron and tying it quickly around his middle, he shuffled through some cabinets in the back.

Hinata rested her hands on the counter, still blushing. Her eyes shifted around nervously, and she saw Sasuke handing coffee to a pair of giggling girls. He looked so . . . sad and angry. His glare could freeze hell over 20 times and still have more ice to spare. She felt so bad for him. He never got any peace from the girls in town. Not even in his own home. There were always girls hanging out in front of his gate with binoculars, trying to get a glimpse of his god-like beauty.

No, she could not say that he wasn't gorgeous. Her heart started beating whenever she saw him, but it wasn't of love, like what she used to feel when she saw Naruto. She was over Naruto at this point. After trailing behind him like a lost puppy for so long, she was sick of it. She still talked to him, but the flame was no longer there.

Her thoughts of Naruto and Sasuke were interrupted when a bag was shoved in her face. Her eyes widened and her mouth formed into a small 'O' shape, taken aback. Looking past the bag, she saw Kakashi smiling slightly at her. "Here you go Hinata. Our best beans."

Hinata daintily took the bag and blushed once again, and just had to ask. "K-kakashi-sensei . . . w-why did you g-give me this?"

She could see Kakashi smile again beneath his mask. He seemed to be in good humor that day. "Well, you're the only girl in Konoha who hasn't barged in here and broken something."

As if on cue, there was the harsh sound of a glass falling, and screams and yelps of surprise soon followed. Kakashi groaned and grabbed the broom that as also behind the counter. "Well, I better go and clean that up."

"Y-yes. W-well, I'll see you l-later Kakashi-sensei. T-thank you again!" Hinata gave a quick bow, slapped the money for the beans on the counter, and zoomed off to the compound. Her father and Neji were expecting refreshments after training, and they had specified that they wished to have coffee that day instead of their usual tea. It was one more chore for Hinata to do, but she didn't dare talk back to them. After all, it was a relatively short walk back to the compound from The Coffee Shop.

***

The rest of the day was nothing very special. She went home, prepared some coffee and snacks for her father and Neji, laid the plates and cups out of them, and worked on other things (mostly cleaning, reading, etc.).

The day was coming to a close when Hinata finally realized something. Shuffling around her room and tearing everything apart looking for her cell phone, she remembered. "Oh no . . . I-I left it at The Coffee Shop!" The memory flowed back to her about how when she took out her money to pay for the beans, she had taken her phone out as to get to the money that was underneath it. She must have forgotten to pick it back up off of the counter before she ran off. Hinata sat down on her bed and sighed heavily. "Oh no . . . oh no . . . f-father will n-never forgive me if I l-lose my phone! I need to find it!" Her stuttering acted up because she was so nervous, and the mentally kicked herself for it. She had been trying to work on that. She was trying to get her brave self to come out more, but it was hard to do.

Hinata ran down the stairs, deciding to run back to the shop and see if it was still open and if someone had put her phone aside in a Lost-and-Found or something. She quickly threw open the door and almost collided head-on with a man's chest. She felt another blush creep up onto her face as she looked up at, once again, Kakashi. She was starting to wonder why she was seeing him so much today.

"K-Kakashi-sensei! W-what are you d-doing here?"

"I found this on the counter, and I figured that it was yours." He held out a small cell phone that was scuffed up and slightly damaged, but to Hinata it was as if he was handing her a lump of gold. She reached out and grabbed it from him, surprising him with her quickness.

"Thank you s-so much Kakashi-sensei! Y-you don't know h-how much I needed this b-back!" Her face was gleaming. She was happy to have her phone back and not have to answer to her father's wrath if he found out that she had misplaced it.

"Hey, no problem. Well, I guess I'll see you around." Kakashi started to walk away, waving over his shoulder. Hinata felt really bad about him walking all the way over and not getting anything in return, so she promptly stopped him with a yell.

"Oi! K-Kakashi-sensei! W-would you like a cup o-of coffee?"

Kakashi's face lit up from behind his mask, and he made his way back to the door. "Why Hinata, I think that would hit the spot!"

***

Sasuke walked back home from work. They had just closed, and he wished that he could just quit. All the girls who came in gave him a headache, and they never left him alone. He could never get any peace! They were like a bad virus that you just couldn't shake.

His eyes hurt from all of the steam blowing into them, his hands tingled because of the hot coffee, his feet hurt from standing on them all day, and his ears were ringing from the constant noise in the shop, but thankfully his wallet was full. Because of all of the girls who came in to buy coffee (also the guys who got drinks, but it was mostly girls), Kakashi paid Sasuke a large sum of money every week. That way, Sasuke could buy all the food and things that he needed, and also have a little left over to save for something that he might one day want. He already had a small box hidden in his closet that held more than 500 dollars.

Walking into his house, Sasuke collapsed onto the couch and decided to stay there for a while. Not only were the girls always coming to see him, but he and Kakashi were the only ones working there. No one else dared to work there in fear of getting harmed on the job. Maybe if there was another person working at The Coffee Shop, he might have an easier time.


	2. job opportunities and icy glares

Thanks so much to all the people who are reading this and reviewing and subscribing (or whatever its called) to my story! I really didn't think that anyone would read my story at all, let alone on the 1st day that it was up 

Hahaha I know that it really does seem like KakaHina, but let me assure you that SasuHina is the real pairing! That will, of course, become more evident later.

Thanks for reading!

STORY START:

Hinata was sweating like a dog, sitting at the table across from Kakashi who was calmly sipping at a cup of coffee. They had been sitting there for about 10 minutes in silence except for one or twice when Kakashi asked for another cup. Hinata was starting to get nervous and even more on-edge than she usually was.

Finally Kakashi broke the silence by heaving a content sigh and placing his cup softly on the table. "This coffee was very well made Hinata. What's your secret?"

"Erm . . . j-just a l-little bit of c-cinnamon."

Kakashi looked at the cup and whispered "brilliant!" Hinata could feel herself blushing again. She really hated how the blushed all the time. She made a mental note to work much harder on that. "Hey, Miss. Hyuuga, how would you like to have a job at The Coffee Shop?"

Hinata's eyes widened and she managed to choke out a simple "W-w-why?"

"Well, only Sasuke and I work there at the moment, and you're very good at making coffee soooooooo . . . how about it?" Another smile followed this, and Hinata wondered how he could smile that much while talking to her. Usually people got really annoyed when they talked to her because of her stuttering and blushing. She was sure that if she tried to talk to someone like Sasuke he would get sick of her within the first couple minutes.

She was flabbergasted! Working at The Coffee Shop? She never even thought about getting a job, let alone a job at the most popular coffee shop in Konoha! "B-but what ab-about the--?"

"The girls?" Kakashi interrupted. "As long as you stay behind the counter you should be fine. After all, they're only really interested in Sasuke."

Hinata was definitely weighing her options, and working there started sounding better and better. Sure she could potentially die, but other than that she would be making money, she would have something to occupy her time, and maybe she could use this opportunity to work on her shyness! Every arrow was pointing to The Coffee Shop. There was one thing that she needed to do though before she agreed to anything.

"W-well, I would n-need to ch-check with my f-father first . . ."

"Of course, of course. I'll tell you what. You come over tomorrow after you've talked to your father and tell me if you're working or not. If he says yes, you start tomorrow!" Kakashi got up and started for the door. Hinata almost tripped over the chair that she was sitting on in her rush to get to the door before he did. Luck was with her and she didn't break anything, and she soon got to the door and opened it for Kakashi. His eyebrows raised at this. "You're very polite Hinata. Thank you." He smiled again, and once again Hinata could feel her face heating up.

"Y-you're welcome K-kakashi-sensei."

"We open at 7:00 am. See you then!" He waved at her over him shoulder and made his way out of the compound. Hinata was left there to stumble over her feet as she made her way to where she was sure her father and Neji were resting.

***

Neji breathed heavily as he drank his coffee. As always, anything that Hinata touched tasted like heaven. He was lucky to be living here so that he could eat her food. He whipped his forehead with the back on his hand and glanced over to the right. He was very surprised to see Hinata bowing in front of Hiashi and apparently talking, through Neji was too far away to hear anything.

Hiashi didn't look pleased at all. His face got angry and Neji could tell that he sounded as angry as he looked while he talked to Hinata.

Hinata came back up from her bow and looked pleading while she spoke in her soft tone to him.

His face looked confused for a moment and then he sighed.

Hinata looked eager to hear what his apparent answer would be.

He opened his eyes and calmly told her something, which resulted in Hinata smiling a smile that went from ear to ear. She bowed quickly and ran off after that.

"Neji." Neji's attention came back to Hiashi. Neji walked forward and gave a quick bow to him before straightening up and looking him right in the eyes. "Neji, Hinata will be working at The Coffee Shop down the road, starting tomorrow. I would like you to periodically look in on her to make sure that she is not ruining anything."

Neji hated how Hiashi looked down on Hinata so much, but he didn't say anything about it. He just simply nodded and replied with a quick "Yes sir."

***

Sasuke woke up, still on the couch from last night. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, getting the sleep out of his eyes. He felt tired and ill, but he decided to take a shower to remedy the situation.

After a quick, hot shower he walked out of his bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He groaned as he scratched the back on his head, his hand getting wet from his still damp hair.

"Back to work."

Sasuke closed the blinds of the house as he walked on to his room. He knew how there were always girls who wanted to get a look at him and tended to try and look in the windows, and the last thing that he wanted was for some fan girls to see him wet and in only a towel.

He soon got to his room and he pulled on some clothes. He walked down the stairs, grabbed an apple to eat while he walked to work, and was basically screaming in his head because of the monotony of his life. It was always wake up, shower, eat, work, break, work, leave, eat, sleep. Repeat every day, and that's what Sasuke's life was like. The only free days that he had were Sundays, when The Coffee Shop was closed, and he usually just did his grocery shopping on those days and then sat around the rest of the day.

Sasuke walked into the shop, after looking around to make sure that there were no girls around of course while he unlocked the door, and made his way slowly behind the counter, grabbing his apron while he went and tying it around his waist. His first duty of the day, every day, was to clean off the counter and start brewing coffee. His hands moved slowly as he did all of this, scooping coffee grounds into the machine and slowly dragging a rag over the countertop.

His "concentration" was soon interrupted when someone walked into the shop. He didn't hear any screeching of delight, so he decided that it was Kakashi. "Wow Kakashi, you're actually here on time." Sasuke said as he turned around. "What's the occasio--?" His speech faded when he saw not Kakashi standing in front of him, but a girl with short, bark hair and the eyes of a Hyuuga standing there, nervously tapping her fingers together and blushing slightly.

"H-hello S-Sasuke-kun."

***

Uncomfortable would definitely be the word that Hinata would use to describe how the situation was when she walked into The Coffee Shop and saw Sasuke standing there staring at her at first, but then starting to glare icily at her. She refused to make eye contact and started taking small steps towards the door just in case she had to make a quick getaway.

"U-um . . . i-it's my first d-day here, so . . . ummm . . ." She was lost for words. She just couldn't take it that he was simply glaring at her and not saying anything. Not even a simple "get out!" or anything. "Well, w-what should I d-do?"

"Hn." Sasuke went back to cleaning off the counter, finally turning his glare from Hinata to the tiled floor. She felt a little better that he was no longer looking at her, but she disliked how he was treating her.

_He hates me. He hates me. He must. There's no other explanation for it. What am I going to do? Is the money and all really worth this??_

Hinata's mind was going haywire and she decided to just sit down and wait for Kakashi to come to work. She may have to wait a few hours, but she would rather do that then be stuck behind a counter with a guy that apparently hates her.

***

Sasuke just glared at the counter.

_Why is there a girl working here? What possessed Kakashi to hire her? Wait . . . what's her name, even? I think it starts with an H? I know that she's a Hyuuga, but other then that . . ._

He let out another groan and he saw the Hyuuga girl jump slightly out of the corner of his eye. He was already annoyed with her and she hardly even did anything yet. But that was just how Sasuke was after being around so many crazy girls. It was very hard to gain his trust in the first place, but being a girl didn't help her case at all.

The morning went slow as usual (not many people showed up until the afternoon. No one was up at 7:00, which really made Sasuke wonder why work started this early), and Sasuke just handed the occasional business man their refreshments with no hint of a smile on his face while Hinata cowered in a table in the corner of the shop.

Finally, about 3 hours later, the silver-haired owner of the shop waltzed through the doors. He seemed to be in a good mood, but that all dissipated when he saw Hinata sitting like a stone statue in the corner of the café shivering slightly, and Sasuke being his usual ass-self and not even attempting to reach out to the girl, but instead flipping through a book, waiting for the impending flood of fan girls to come.

Kakashi let out a large sigh.

Perhaps this wasn't his best idea ever.


	3. hot coffee and messy cabinets

". . . and over here is the coffee machine. I'm sure you know how to work it."

"Y-Yes Kakashi Sensei!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He couldn't even concentrate on his book and his last couple minutes of silence and peace because Kakashi was dragging the girl around the store pointing out the obvious like "here is the counter". Sasuke, although he didn't know her name, remembered that she was very smart. He was sure that her intelligence could rival that of Sakura.

Kakashi finally made it to the end of the tour and they both stood in front of Sasuke, further annoying him.

"This is the final stop on our tour: your fellow employee. His name is Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke, this is Hinata Hyuuga. You two will be working here together every day from 7:00 am – 9:00 pm with three 15 minute breaks whenever you choose to take it during those will work every day except for Sundays; that's the day that you have off. Sasuke, stop being an ass-hat and rolling your eyes at me!" Kakashi snapped at Sasuke, but the dark haired boy took no notice and went back to his book. Kakashi's face portrayed his annoyance, but when he turned to Hinata he smiled. "Well, I need to run and do some other work, so I'll leave you two to do your jobs. Ta-ta!" And with that, Kakashi left.

Hinata looked back at Sasuke nervously and decided to take a risk. She walked behind the counter and grabbed an extra apron that they had lying around, wrapping it around her petite waist. She kept throwing nervous glances at Sasuke while she moved around and familiarized herself with the shop. Any minute now people would start flowing through the doorway, and she wanted to be as prepared as possible.

She gumped and blushed as she cleared her throat. "Ahem . . . S-Sasuke-kun? W-Where do y-you keep the c-c-cinnamon?"

Sasuke looked at her with a half surprised, half annoyed look and gestured to one of the cabinets with his thumb. Hinata scurried over to the said-cabinet and opened it. Her breath caught in her throat.

The cabinet was a mess!!! There were bottles lying on ther sides, things leaking out of the containers, and nothing was stacked properly; it was all just thrown in there. She opened the cabinet next to that, and the cabinet next to that one, and they were all just horrible! She couldn't believe how dirty and messy the shop was!

She turned around quickly and saw that Sasuke was indifferent about the whole thing so, heaving a large sigh, she went to the back room and looked for a broom and cleaning products. She groaned loudly (to which Sasuke's head came up a bit in confusion and interest) and rubbed her temples when she saw even more things were leaking and on their sides, and there was dust everywhere. Apparently, no one had ever bothered to do any cleaning other than the front of the shop and the counter. Also apparently, it would be Hinata's first duty to clean the rest of the shop.

_I'm going to need a gas mask and some vaccinations is I'm going to do all of this cleaning and live to tell the tale!_

***

As expected, about 10 minutes after Hinata officially started work at The Coffee Shop and Kakashi bailed on them, the shop filled up. Hinata decided to leave the cleaning until another time when she actually had the time, because there was absolutely no way that she would get anything done with all the people there.

Hinata was definitely working behind-the-scenes so to speak when it came to her job. She was in charge of making the coffee and drinks while Sasuke took the orders and handed them out.

"Hey! Erm . . . you!" Hinata turned around to see Sasuke looking at her with fire in his eyes in place of the usual ice. It was a fire of anger and irritation. "Why don't you work the counter for a bit and give me a break?" Without even waiting for Hinata to say anything, he shoved her at the register and backed up to the part of the shop where he could have some breathing room.

Hinata's gut hurt from the contact that it made with the counter, but the pain was soon forgotten when she looked up to see the glared of many girls who were expecting Sasuke, not a blushing, stuttering girl.

"What are you doing here? Where's Sasuke!?"

"Um . . . W-What would y-y-you like?"

"I would LIKE to have Sasuke here and not you!"

Hinata's brow furrowed as her face turned more red from not only embarrassment, but from anger as well. "W-What would you l-like?" She asked again.

"Where's Sasuke!?"

_FORGET SASUKE!!! _

"H-He is busy right now, s-so I will b-be taking y-your o-order. Now, What. W-Would. You. Like?"

The girl sighed/grunted and asked for a simple black coffee. Hinata turned around to see a cup being shoved in her face by Sasuke. She took it, nodded to him in thanks (blushing, of course), and handed it to the girl.

"T-that will b-be $2.00 p-please."

***

At 9:00 pm, Hinata threw off her apron and tossed it angrily (most unlike her) to the side. She was aggravated beyond belief. Not only had Sasuke not taken over for her at the counter again, but the girls got vicious after a while, and one even dropped her coffee all down Hinata's front (definitely on purpose). She took up all three of her breaks trying to get the stain of the dark liquid out of her shirt, and conveniently Sasuke chose to take the exact same times for his breaks, so there was no one at the counter for 45 minutes. Hinata didn't even say goodnight to Sasuke, but instead just left.

_What a day. _

Hinata groaned and ambled home, not looking back.

***

Sasuke locked up and stuffed the keys in his pocket. He had thrown an extra key at Hinata before she left, so now maybe he could get just a couple more minutes of sleep every morning. The weird thing was that Hinata didn't even blush or smile or anything when he gave her the key. She just grabbed it off of the floor (where it fell after he, quite literally, tossed it at her) and walked off.

To tell the truth, he did feel kind of bad about putting all that work on her on her 1st day, but he never got any easy days, so he jumped at the chance to hang in the background for once.

He made his usual sound of indifference and made his way home. He would figure everything out on Monday. It was Saturday, so they had tomorrow off.

***

Neji tromped up the stairs to his room, but stopped when he heard some noises coming from Hinata's room. He put his ear to her door and could only make out that she was talking, but he wasn't sure of what was being said. He silently wished her a good night and started his walk again to his room, where he was going to get a good night sleep.

***

Hinata spent the night after she got home angrily muttering to herself and, unlike Neji, would not be sleeping very soundly that night. She had strange dreams while she was sleeping. There was one where a shadow person grabbed her arm, pulled it, and she fell down. There was another one that was much more intense, where she stood up on a platform and things were being thrown at her when all of a sudden everything stopped when someone shouted her name. She stood there battered, bruised, and bleeding, and when she fell backwards she was caught by a pair of arms that felt nice and soft against her tattered flesh.

She woke up with goose bumps more than once that night.

***

The next morning, Sunday morning, Sasuke woke up in bed feeling well rested. He had slept soundly and felt much better then he had the day before. He sat up in his bed and stretched his hands over his head, feeling his back crack pleasingly.

After having a big breakfast and taking a shower, he decided that he wanted to read for a bit. He walked slowly and pleasantly to his bag and rummaged through it . . . only to find that his book was not in there. His forehead wrinkled as he looked through a couple more times.

"What the--? Where's my book?" Sasuke backtracked to the day before. He had gotten home, thrown his bag on the chair, and watched a movie, not touching his bag again. Sasuke got down onto his knees and peeked under the chair to see if it slid underneath, but he already knew that it was not under there, considering that his bad was zippered.

He ran a hand through his hair and grunted when he realized that he left it at The Coffee Shop. He grabbed his keys and left the house, making sure that all the lights were off before he left. The walk to the shop was a nice one, through a nice quiet neighborhood with many trees on the side of the roads. A smile hinted at his lips as he walked slowly, deliberately savoring each peaceful step.

Rounding a corner, he was able to see the shop in the distance. A couple more minutes of walking and he was at the front door. He leisurely took out his keys and slid them in the lock, only to find that it was unlocked. Confusion played on his face.

_I definitely locked up yesterday. Why is it open? Is Kakashi there?_

Sasuke took a cautious step into the store. What he saw was not what he had ever expected.

There was Hinata, leaning on one of the counters, reading his book. She had a bandana around her head and Sasuke could see that most of the cabinets were open so he could see inside of them. He had never seen them that clean! All of the bottles and containers had new, clean, easy to read labels on them and were stacked beautifully and nicely, every single thing having it's own special place. And in addition to that, one cabinet held all spices, the next one held all powders, the next all liquids, etc. Upon closer inspection, Sasuke could see that they were all alphabetized as well.

Sasuke took slow steps closer to the counter, trying not to startle Hinata too badly.

"Um, hello?"

Hinata jumped and quickly closed the book, holding it behind her back as if it was something to be ashamed of as she faced him.

"O-oh! S-Sasuke-kun! I'm sorry! I-I just found this b-book here and . . . w-well, I was t-taking a break and . . ." Her words got quieter and quieter until she no longer talked, but simply stood there with a red face.

Sasuke walked over and held out a hand, letting Hinata drop the book into his hand and withdrawing quickly, as if he were poisonous. He stared at the curious girl for a moment. "What chapter did you get to?"

"H-Huh?"

"What chapter did you get to in the book?"

Hinata blushed harder and stumbled over her words. "I-I . . . got up t-to chapter t-ten."

"Hn." Sasuke flipped quickly through the book and backed up a few steps, leaning against the other counter. "It's a good book."

"Y-yes it is." Hinata said this so softly that Sasuke almost didn't hear it. "I-It's actually one o-of my f-favorite books."

Sasuke's eyebrows raised. "Really? I've never met a girl who has read this book." (He, of course, had never asked any girls of they had read the book, considering that almost any girl would glomp his if he even asked her what the time was, but he decided that that was not the time to bring that fact up.)

"W-well, there i-isn't very much e-else for m-me to do. Not m-many people . . . t-talk to me. T-the people who I d-do know . . . w-well, t-they live in o-other villages . . ."

"Shame . . ." It was Sasuke's turn to mumble his words so softly that Hinata's ears only picked up a single soft syllable. "What are you doing here on a Sunday?"

"O-Oh!" Hinata's face looked like a tomato by this time and her mouth formed the shape on an 'O'. "I-I was cleaning!" She motioned to the cabinets and then to the back of the store, where Sasuke could see that the closet where they kept the cleaning products and things of the like was just as clean as the cabinets, and organized in the same way.

"You did a good job."

Hinata smiled, more red (if it was even possible) crawled into her cheeks, and cast her eyes downward, not looking Sasuke in his dark eyes. Their eyes were so different. His were a deep black that seemed cold most of the time, whereas Hinata's eyes were white orbs, and instead of being cold, they were more . . . refreshing. Like a tall glass of milk.

"T-Thank you . . . well, I-I have to go n-now. I'll s-see you t-tomorrow!" Before he could stop her, Hinata ran out the doors, leaving Sasuke in the newly-cleaned shop. He stared after her, emotionless, and simply opened his book, turning to the page that he left off on and sitting on the counter to relax his feet.


	4. new flavors and old enemies

Let's make this clear: I have no idea what flavors of coffee would sound good, so I'm sorry if one of the flavors that I introduce here sounds like it would taste bad. I'm not very cultured in coffee!

STORY START:

It was a sunny Wednesday morning (which incidentally didn't make it any more enjoyable to be up and about at 7:00 am) and Sasuke opened the doors to the shop. It kind of felt good to know that he was walking into a perfectly clean shop. It made it that much more bearable now that whenever he reached into one of the cabinets he wouldn't get a handful of honey when he was actually reaching for the coca.

He expected to see Hinata there first, and sure enough, the door was unlocked and Hinata was at the counter, doing Sasuke's usual job of wiping off the counter. He could smell fresh coffee brewing.

"H-hello Sasuke-kun!" Hinata gave a quick bow and rushed over to the coffee machine when it started beeping, signaling that it was done.

As he walked over to get his apron, mumbling a quick, almost grunted, "Hello", Hinata could be seen adding a pinch of this and a pinch of that to several different cups of coffee. Sasuke watched in mild interest as he got ready to work. Once he had gotten everything together, he headed over to see what the strange girl was doing. "What's going on here?"

Hinata stiffened and turned around, a nervous smile sliding across her face. "Oh, w-well I was j-just m-making some n-new flavors of c-coffee that we c-could maybe t-try selling . . ." Sasuke tilted his head a bit to the side, and Hinata got what he was about to ask. "K-Kakashi-sensei p-put a letter o-on my door y-yesterday saying that I sh-should try and make the c-coffee better tasting."

"What, so my coffee isn't good enough for everyone?"

Hinata's eyes widened in terror. "N-n-no! Of c-course it is!"

Sasuke just walked away, head bowed down and grunting to himself. "Not good enough . . . Kakashi . . . coffee . . ." Hinata almost couldn't suppress her laugh when he started grunting to himself like a caveman. She had to quickly disguise her giggle as a cough to stop it from coming out.

Sasuke plopped himself down at one of the tables and looked up to see Hinata coming towards him with a tray of cups. He guessed what was coming next. "You want me to try them?"

Hinata nodded quickly and blushed as she sat across from him and handed him one of the cups. He took it in his hand, sniffed it, and brought it to his lips. His eyebrows rose just a bit and he swallowed the rest of it.

". . . h-how was it?"

"Hn . . . it wasn't that bad." Sasuke set down his empty cup and saw that she had written "caramel peanut" on the side of it with a magic marker. He looked at the others and saw that there was one named "chocolate hazelnut", "dark chocolate orange", and quite a couple more that sounded just as appetizing. He licked his lips and grabbed another one.

"No use letting all of this get cold."

***

Hinata watched in silent happiness as Sasuke drank cup after cup of her coffee. She could tell that he was trying to suppress his urge to say just how delicious they were. Not that she wanted to toot her own horn, but Hinata did know that she was a very good cook. Neji was addicted to her food, and claimed that whenever he ate something else, it tasted like cardboard. She smiled and started clearing some of the empty cups off of the table.

A couple minutes later, Sasuke finished all of the cups of coffee. Hinata asked him which ones he liked best.

He thought about it and replied "I liked the Vanilla Bean one and the Caramel Brownie ones the best." Sasuke watched silently as Hinata reached up to the chalk board where they usually wrote down the prices of all the drinks and wrote on it: TWO NEW FLAVORS: VANILLA BEAND AND CARAMEL BROWNIE. She wrote them large and even drew a little smiling vanilla bean on the side. He couldn't help but smirk at this as Hinata finished and backed away, admiring her work.

"Vanilla Bean and Caramel Brownie, huh? I knew I could count on you Hinata!" The two teenagers turned to the door to see Kakashi standing there in all his glory. He pranced over to the counter and smiled at Hinata. "You're doing a marvelous job Hinata! I'm so glad I hired you!" Hinata;s face turned red yet again and Sasuke frowned slightly. Couldn't Kakashi see that being that close to her made her feel uncomfortable?

"Hey Kakashi. Back off."

Kakashi's eyebrows rose and he smiled evilly under his mask. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. I didn't know I was bothering your little girlfriend so much."

Sasuke and Hinata's faces both turned the same shade of fire red and they both started spitting out words that didn't quite form complete sentences.

"What--!?"

"N-n-no! W-We're not --!"

"What the hell Kakashi!?"

Kakashi watched and laughed to himself. The very fact that they were acting like this was a sure fire sign that there was more to their relationship than just being co-workers. "I was just kidding you two! You didn't need to get so defensive about it!" The two teenagers simply stood there, dumbfounded, while Kakashi walked around and got an apron on.

***

"How many calories are in the Vanilla Bean coffee?"

". . . Excuse me?" Sasuke was standing at his post at the counter and stared at the girl as if she was an alien.

"How many calories are there?"

_Who even cares? You could use some meat on your bones anyway. You look like a skeleton!_

"What difference does it make? Do you want it or not?"

"O-oh . . . yeah."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned back to Hinata. "Hey! One Vanilla Bean!"

"Y-yes!" Hinata's hands moved quickly as she assembled her drink. Sasuke chose not to look back to the girl who had ordered the coffee and was presently trying to flirt with him, and decided instead to just watch Hinata out of the corner of his eye. She was very fluid in her movements for someone who was so jumpy all the time. He had actually heard from Naruto once that Hinata had this amazing jutsu where she moved her arms incredibly fast and chakra beams came from her palms, making her practically impossible to touch. He would have to ask her to show him that jutsu sometime. It sounds pretty impressive.

Sasuke took the cup that Hinata handed to him and placed it in front of the size zero girl in front of him. "$2.50." The girl put her money on the counter, winked at him (which caused Sasuke to shiver slightly; a winking skeleton!), and sauntered away.

The next person to come to the counter was actually a guy. And also, Sasuke knew him. He would remember those sea-foam eyes and red hair anywhere.

"Hello Gaara." His eyes narrowed and his hands balled into fists at his sides.

"Uchiha."

"What do you want here in Konoha? Don't you have a job to do? _Elsewhere_?"

"I'm here to meet with your Hokage, and I would be more polite to the Kazekage if I were you Uchiha." Gaara have Sasuke a death glare, which he kindly returned to the red head. Sasuke wasn't sure how long they were standing there, but they both broke eye contact when they heard Kakashi yell at Sasuke to keep the line moving. Gaara smirked and looked at Sasuke, giving him a condescending stare.

"Well, you heard your superior." Sasuke hated it, but he did have to admit that Kakashi was his superior. He just didn't enjoy that one of the guys that he hated most was the one that had to point it out to him, as if he already didn't know it. "I'll have black coffee."

"Hn." Sasuke told Hinata to pour a cup of coffee, and when Hinata brought it to Sasuke, she stopped when she saw Gaara. Her eyes widened, and she put the cup down on the counter herself.

"G-Gaara!"

"Hinata."

Sasuke looked between the two of them, Hinata blushing and mouth slightly agape, Gaara with a look in his eyes that wasn't his usual stone-coldness. It was . . . softer. He watched them, waiting for something to happen, but they didn't move for about 10 seconds.

_What the hell?_

***

Sasuke was being extra rude while he gave the coffee to the people how ordered them. He couldn't stop looking over at a table on the other side of the store where Hinata (who had taken her break) and Gaara were sitting, sipping coffee and chatting. Hinata looked happy, and Gaara looked pretty pleased (which seriously surprised Sasuke, considering that he had never seen Gaara even the slightest bit happy before). Sasuke just couldn't place what exactly was upsetting about this, but his insides were practically boiling.

"Oi! Sasuke! Get your head out of the clouds and get to work!" Sasuke clenched his jaw as he grabbed the coffee cup that Kakashi had just made for the customer and slammed it down.

His eyes traveled again to the table, and he saw Hinata smiling broadly and laughing, while Gaara smirked. Sasuke felt like if he was in a cartoon, smoke would be coming out of his ears right now. He didn't understand why it was annoying him so much. He had seen Hinata be friendly like this with guys before, and it hadn't had any effect on him, positive or negative. Then again, when he had seen her with Shino, Kiba, or Neji (who he incidentally hated just as much as he hated Gaara), he hadn't known her at all. He didn't even know her name back then.

But ever since she started working here, Sasuke had grown to know Hinata more. She wasn't that bad of a girl. In fact, he liked coming to work much better now that he had some intelligent company.

For the thousandth time, Sasuke glared over at the table, only to see that there was no one there anymore. His head whipped around and saw that Hinata was walking Gaara to the door. Sasuke watched discreetly while serving a customer as Hinata opened the door and Gaara left, giving her a small, rare smile as he left, causing Hinata to blush again, a big smile spreading across her face, and wave goodbye.

***

The rest of the day was uneventful, but also awkward. Sasuke hardly said a word for the rest of the day, and Hinata just made drink after drink, only replying when Sasuke told her the order.

When it was nearing time to leave, Hinata and Sasuke finished up cleaning everything (Kakashi bailed early, as always), including the tables and floors. They still hardly made eye contact for some reason, and didn't speak much, as they had been like for hours before.

Hinata took off her apron and put it back in its rightful place, and was about to open the door to leave when Sasuke called her back. "Hey Hinata."

"Y-yes Sasuke?"

He walked up and stood in-between her and the door so that she couldn't get out. It was annoying him ALL day, and he really just needed to find out. He looked her square in the eyes, unnerving her a bit. "What's the deal between you and Gaara?"


	5. stories and tea

Hey there! I have a question for all of you.

What do you think about Sakura? I know that a lot of people who love SasuHina also love NaruSaku, but personally, I don't like NaruSaku . . . at all. I just really don't think that much of Sakura, and I'm not sure if I'm the only one who isn't a fan of any specific pairing that has Sakura in it. I really don't like her very much . . . sorry if I sound like a jerk while saying that! If any of you love Sakura, that completely and utterly awesome! I'm just wondering. 

Thanks so much for reviewing and everything! You all make me feel so cool when you review and comment. It gives me a real reason to keep writing this!

STORY START:

"What's the deal between you and Gaara?"

"H-huh?" Hinata's face flushed as it always did around Sasuke. He noticed that she was blushing around Gaara too, but it wasn't as heated. It was a happy kind of color that she had to her cheeks, like when a child is happy and their parents say that they get "apple cheeks". Also, when he was able to hear what they were saying over the chatter of the people who were ordering, he noticed with resentment that she wasn't stuttering. She seemed to only stutter when she was nervous or scared. His face got hot as he thought about her being that happy and calm around that red haired bastard.

"What's going on between you and Gaara?"

"N-nothing S-sasuke-kun! What d-do you m-mean?"

Sasuke glared and softly hissed in anger. "You know exactly what I mean!"

Hinata looked confused and her eyebrows furrowed. "W-why do you c-care?"

Sasuke was about to say something else, but it was as if she punched him in the jaw by saying that. His mouth, which was open, shut quickly. Why DID he care? He shouldn't be this angry about all of it! He never cared for any girl other than his mother before, and once she . . .

. . . once she died, there was no other girl to care about. He learned then and there that he just needed to worry about himself. No one else. And then one day, this shy little girl just waltzed in and took a job, and all of a sudden she started taking over his mind.

He made another noise of irritation and pushed away from the door. He didn't want to deal with this anymore.

***

Hinata watched as Sasuke stormed off, tearing off his apron as he went. He looked really angry, and she was worried that she offended him with what she said. She wasn't trying to be sassy, she just didn't understand why he was questioning her and Gaara so much. She bit on the nail of her left index finger and walked over to where Sasuke was.

"S-S-Sasuke . . . k-kun?" Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the look on his face. There was anger and annoyance there, but she could also see the tiniest, ever so slightest look of pain or sorrow in his eyes. Hinata cleared her throat and looked at a place on the wall over Sasuke's shoulder so that she didn't have to look into his eyes anymore. "W-well, y-you asked what w-was going on b-b-between Gaara and I." She was shaking slightly, and held her hands tightly so that Sasuke couldn't tell (it incidentally didn't work and Sasuke could notice).

His eyebrows raised, but that's the only thing on his face that changed.

"U-ummmm . . ." Her eyes shut and tried as hard as she could to stop stuttering so much. It was starting to annoy her just as much as she was sure it annoyed Sasuke. While she gathered her thoughts, her eyes remained closed.

***

As Sasuke watched Hinata standing there, apparently thinking pretty hard about something, he couldn't help but soften his features a bit. Even though she aggravated him to no end sometimes, there was no way that he could ever stay angry at her for too long, especially if she came up to him when he was clearly angry. Most people would never try and approach him when he was fuming, but this shy little girl dared to confront him. There was definitely more to her than everyone thought.

***

Hinata's eyes opened. She knew exactly what she was going to say. "S-Sasuke-kun, Gaara . . . and I . . . met in the s-sand village . . . a c-couple years ago." She had to pause a lot to stop herself from stuttering too badly. It was still there and very apparent, but it would have been worse if she wasn't concentrating on it so hard. "M-my job was to . . . to protect him . . . t-there was a t-threat against . . . against his life."

***

Sasuke noticed her attempt to try and stop tripping over her words so much, and he was torn as to what to think. He was glad that she was trying to stop, but he was angry that she had to try to stop stuttering and it didn't just happen on it's own around him. It showed that she wasn't comfortable around him . . . yet.

***

"W-when I was . . . I was watching him, we st-started to talk. D-during our time . . . time together, we f-found that we understood e-each other well and grew to be very c-close. After I left, we k-kept writing . . . writing letters to e-each other." With the background of her and Gaara in a nutshell being put out of the way, she was able to relax just a bit more. "I didn't k-know that . . . that he was visiting, s-so it was a v-very nice surprise." She smiled, thinking about being able to see Gaara again face to face. He was really her best friend. He helped talk her through some times in her life that she never wanted to think about again.

(She remembered one particular instance that was especially near and dear to her that happened when she was still on her mission. She was sitting with Gaara in his office. There was an uncomfortable silence while Gaara was doing his paperwork. She had just arrived a couple days ago and she was still very nervous about being alone with him. She had seen what he was able to do, and it scared her.

She glanced over to Gaara and saw a disgruntled look playing on his face. She didn't like that look on his face. His eyes looked darker than usual, and his eyebrow-less face was twisted.

Another silent hour passed, and finally Gaara moved. He growled and violently pushed a stack of papers off his desk. Hinata stared at him, frozen in fear, not daring to get up just yet. Gaara continued to push things off the table, breaking glasses and denting small statues, the whole time keeping the same look of disgust and anger on his face. Hinata wanted to curl up and hide her head, but her feet moved on their own. She got up quickly and ran from the room, leaving Gaara alone.

A couple hours later, Hinata returned. She cracked the door open slightly and looked cautiously into the room. Everything was strewn all over the room, and Gaara was in the middle of the pile of broken things, his head in his hands. Hinata gulped as softly as she could, and choked back tears of fear as she inched forward.

As she got closer and closer to the redhead, she slowed down and brought her hands forward. She was carrying a cup of tea which she had taken special care to make nice and fresh, adding calming ingredients to it. She could see it now. She would try and hand it to him, he would hit her hand, making it fall to the floor and break, and he would close his hands around her throat and . . .

She shook her thoughts and daydreams loose from her mind and focused on the boy who was now only a yard from her. She squatted down, cradling the cup of tea in her hands, making sure to hold it tightly so that her violent shaking didn't make the liquid splash out. She watched Gaara as she quietly but carefully set down the cup of tea in-between them . . . and waited.

Gaara looked up after sensing her presence and gave her a cold look. She winced, but didn't break the eye contact. She needed him to know that she was going to be there for him. It wasn't just because of the mission anymore, either. Her eyes started to water slightly, but she forced the water back in. She wasn't going to let him know that she was scared.

She and Gaara looked at each other for about 10 minutes, neither of them looking away. Gaara moved all of a sudden, and reached his hand forward. Hinata's mind flashed with images of him choking her to death and Konoha finding her body cold and dead in front of the gates. Her eyes finally closed tightly, waiting for the pressure to start cutting off her air supply, but it never came.

Her eyes opened just a bit to see that the tea was gone from between them. She looked up warily and saw Gaara sipping at the hot tea, blowing on it before taking each sip.

There was even more silence while Hinata watched Gaara drink his tea. She noticed that the creases were starting to soften. She smiled softly and took pride that he liked her tea.

When he was finished, he set the cup down and closed his eyes. She watched him carefully and waited.

"Thank you." Hinata blushed and looked up to see Gaara playing with the cup absentmindedly. She smiled brightly.

"Y-you're welcome, G-Gaara-kun!"

Gaara looked up at her and saw her smiling. Her smile was so pure and loving that he felt his own lips lift up slightly at the sides. "Tea."

Hinata nodded and took the cup and fill it with more tea for him, as well as get herself some.)

Sasuke's eyebrows lowered. "Did you two date?" (it took all that he had to have his voice not quiver when asking this, but Hinata was too taken aback by the question to notice that)

Hinata went back to her old habits and blushed furiously. "W-what!?" she sputtered out.

"Were you two ever a couple?"

"N-n-no! Garra is m-my best friend! I d-don't like h-him like that!" Hinata rubbed her hands together nervously. Sure, she had thought about her and Gaara being together before, but as hard as she tried she was never able to picture them as being a couple. She and him were best friends, and Hinata never saw that changing.

Sasuke smiled somewhat triumphantly and gave a small nod. "Well, I'll see you later Hinata." Sasuke brushed past the white eyed girl and walked out the door, leaving Hinata to cool off in private.

***

That was good news for Sasuke, and he walked home with a spring in his step. He was afraid that they were old lovers or something and Gaara had come to rekindle their love (even the thought of that made Sasuke want to punch something). Walking home, he went over Hinata's story in his mind. It sounded perfectly normal, and he didn't take her for a liar.

. . . But, what was Gaara's side of the story?

Sasuke stopped and frowned. What if Gaara wanted to be more than friends with Hinata? What if he actually wanted to be lovers with Hinata and not just good buddies? Sasuke clenched his jaw and started running home to get the excess energy out of his system from being so angry all day. He was going to get to the bottom of this. He heard Hinata's side of the story, but now he had to hear Gaara's.


	6. lists and glass

Hey there.

Thanks for all the comments and everything! They make me really happy 

So, I made some Sasuke and Hinata videos on youtube! ^__^ I'll post the links. I'm just so proud of them! They're my first amvs, and I think they turned out very well.

Thanks again! Enjoy the story.

SasuHina: .com/watch?v=GNTtS6h5x4Y&feature=channel_page

Sasuke and Hinata Tribute: .com/watch?v=lll1_HyBJ9Q

Just plain Hinata: .com/watch?v=3DPSZadlC28&feature=channel

STORY START:

"Hinata!" Hinata turned her head to see Naruto running up to her. She felt a blush creep across her face, but it was only slight. After all, she didn't like him like that anymore.

Once Naruto caught up with her, he got right up in her face and started speaking quickly. "Hey, have you seen Shikamaru anywhere? We made a bet that I couldn't go a week without ramen and I won and he owes me a day of all I can eat ramen!" His eyes lit up at the word 'ramen' the way that Hinata always used to wish his eyes would light up when he saw her. But she guessd Naruto was going to be standing at an alter in the future kissing a bowl of ramen.

"Uh, n-no Naruto-kun. I h-haven't seem h-him anywhere."

"Oh ok. I'll see you later then!" With those parting words, Naruto leaped off past Hinata, yelling for Shikamaru at the top of his lungs. Hinata shook her head and continued on her walk. It was her day off today and she needed to do some shopping for the house (Gaara was meeting with the Hokage, and that would take all day). She took out the quick list that she scribbled down and stuffed in her pocket, and read it over. She needed things like butter, milk, vegetables, fruits, meat, and all sorts of things that would undoubtedly become too heavy for one person to handle. Hinata sighed again for what seemed like the thousandth time this week, and pushed forward.

As she walked, Hinata looked at the lovely trees that were lining the side of the walkways and streets in Konoha. This time of year everything was in full bloom, and it was not too clod, but not hot enough that she would have to take off her jacket. She subconsciously snuggled a bit into her jacket, which always was there for her unlike most people, and stared at the trees and flowers in awe. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice when she ran right into someone.

"Oh!" Hinata was surprised and she put her hand to her nose, massaging it slightly. She looked up at the person who she had run into, and saw that she had accidentally strayed off the course of the street and actually ran into someone who was leaning on a tree, engulfed in a book. She blushed heatedly as she stared up into those now familiar dark eyes.

"Hello Hinata."

"H-hello S-Sasuke-kun! I'm so s-sorry that I r-ran into you!" She felt bad that she had interrupted him, and the noticed that she had knocked the book out of his hands. She bent down to pick it up, fumbling slightly.

Sasuke watched her do this, and couldn't help but think how . . . cute she was. He turned his head so that his bangs covered the ever-so-slightly redness of his cheeks. He studied her face and hair, and if she grew her hair out longer, she would be beautiful. But with her short hair, she was just cute. Sasuke shut those thoughts out of his mind, as if he was scared that someone else could hear them, and came back to reality just in time to see Hinata straighten up and hand him his book.

"H-here Sasuke-kun! I'm s-sorry again!"

"Hn. No problem." He took a step and heard a soft crunch from beneath his foot. He looked down curiously and saw a crumpled piece of paper lying on the ground. He picked it up and read it over. It was a grocery list, and by the looks of it, it was going to end up being really heavy. "Hey Hinata. Is this yours?"

Hinata looked at the list and nodded, taking it from his hands. "Yeah. T-thanks Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke thought about quiet, petite little Hinata trying to carry all of that stuff. "Do you need some help carrying all of that? It seems like there's too much for one person to handle."

"O-oh! No Sasuke-kun, I-I can handle it! Y-you just go back t-to your book."

Before Hinata could scurry away, Sasuke grabbed her arm and snatched the list from her hand. He held it above his head and calmly said "You're not getting this back until you let me help you."

Hinata's face got an annoyed look on it as she tried to reach up to where Sasuke was holding the list, but he was taller then she was, so her plan didn't work. Her cheeks puffed out slightly and she made a little pout as she let the air out of her mouth. "Fine."

Sasuke smiled triumphantly and Hinata could feel the heat on her face again. He was just so . . . good looking. Like the other girls always said, he was the best looking guy in Konoha. When he wasn't frowning in anger, his eyes could have an almost soft feeling to them. Like black silk.

"Well, let's go." Sasuke gave the list back to Hinata and kept his eye on her as they walked over to the shops.

***

Hinata could feel heat again. But not on her face this time. Today it was on her back. She knew what the cause of it was also. She had seen them looking at her and Sasuke walking together, and could hear the hisses and hurtful words coming from them. She really wanted to escape all of the blood-thirsty girls, but whenever she tried to get more then a couple yards away from Sasuke, he would spot her and understand her intentions and would grab her arm and pull her back. It didn't help either that Sasuke gave her smiles throughout the day. Not smirks, but real smiles (which, incidentally, made Hinata slightly weak at the knees). Not many girls were happy about that.

There wasn't much talk between them, but the talks that they did have were enjoyable. Hinata noticed that Sasuke and her had a lot of the same thoughts on many subjects. On quite a couple instances she had to stop walking momentarily to put the bags down so she could laugh into her hand. She was even stuttering less then usual, which was a good sign. She was having a very good time.

***

Sasuke was glad that he bullied Hinata in letting him come and help her carry everything. For one, she really wouldn't have been able to carry all of it. It was a two person job. And secondly, he got to spend more time with Hinata, and he didn't have to be serving customers or anything.

They didn't talk up a storm, but the discussions jumped from topic to topic. They talked about books, movies, music, jutsus, and many things.

One of the greatest parts of the day was that Hinata wasn't stuttering so much. His heart flew when he noticed it.

_Take that Gaara, you bastard._

Sasuke had never spent a whole day with a girl like this before. When he was with Sakura, it was because they were on the same team, and it was required. But this wasn't required at all. He actually wanted to be near Hinata and help her. He caught himself smiling and chuckling along with Hinata all day, and it was refreshing that for once he was around a girl who wasn't trying to jump him every couple of minutes. He was having a very good time.

***

The setting sun turned the sky above Hinata and Sasuke's heads to sherbet ice cream as they headed back to Hinata's house to drop all the things off. There was a silence between them, but neither of them felt uncomfortable about it. They were both pretty quiet individuals anyway, and it just felt good to have someone walking next to them.

They finally made it to the front gates of Hinata's house, and they both placed their bags down for a second as Hinata got the gate to open.

"T-thank you Sasuke-kun. Y-you were a real help today." Hinata smiled at Sasuke as she fiddled with her keys. He smiled back, but didn't say anything. Hinata could definitely get used to the Sasuke's perfect smiles.

Hinata finally got the correct key and opened the gate. It swung open with a rusty creak, and she made a mental note to fix that. They both bent down to grab their bags, and were about to continue to the front door when one of Hinata's bags broke and everything in it went crashing to the ground.

"Ah!" Hinata hissed with pain as one of the bottles that dropped broke and the glass cut her leg. She fell down onto one knee and gripped the wound, breathing heavily. She could feel tiny glass shards inside her leg.

"Hinata!" Sasuke collapsed onto the ground next to Hinata. He could see that she was in pain, so he gently lowered her down onto the ground so that she wasn't trying to balance on one knee anymore. He quickly cleared the glass away from the ground and tried to get Hinata's hands away from her leg. "Hinata, let me see."

"No! It hurts!" Hinata's face was tinged with red from the pain, and her hand was covered in blood.

"Hinata!" Sasuke sounded as forceful as he could and grabbed her hands, prying them away from the wound. "Let me help you!" Hinata struggled a bit more, but then relaxed. Sasuke slowly took her hands away from her leg and looked at the cut.

Her leg has a long gash running down it, and he could see small pieces of glass dotted around throughout the cut. He blood was flowing freely, but it was not helping to wash the glass shards out. Sasuke cursed and quickly took off his shirt. He hurriedly ripped it into strips and tied them around Hinata's leg, using one high up on the leg as a tourniquet and wrapping the other strips properly around the cut.

(Hinata was breathing heavily, but no tears fell. She was going to be brave through this and try and not be weak anymore. Her eyelids had fallen down a couple minutes ago, and she felt Sasuke cover some cloth around her wound.)

Sasuke forgot all about the countless food items that were currently strewn across the ground and focused all his attention on Hinata. He needed to get her inside, so he quickly but carefully picked her up and started a run for the front door.

He felt Hinata in his arms, and she was burying her face into his chest, trying to bear with the pain as well as she could. Her jaw was clenched tightly, and he could hear hisses of pain coming from her, but he didn't feel any tears. Most girls would be crying by now, but Hinata wasn't. He didn't dwell too long on that, however, and he continued in a B-line for the door.

***

Neji was sitting in the living room playing a game of chess against himself. He would have been playing with Hinata, but she was out shopping, so he just had to settle for playing by himself. He stared at the pieces and thought about how each of the pieces were so fascinating, especially the pawns, the King, and the Queen. The pawns were willing to sacrifice themselves for their King, who simply sat in his castle and watched while all his subjects fell.

And then there was the Queen. She was the most powerful piece on the board. She was the real force behind the throne. When the King was watching everything unfold, the Queen was out in the field, taking down whoever got in her way. It was proof that behind every strong, silent man, there was a strong, silent woman to back him up.

Neji cradled the King and Queen in his hand, but dropped them when he heard violent knocking at the front door. He quickly got up and walked to the door, opening it without seeing who it was first.

Neji was at a loss for words when he saw what was in front of him. Sasuke and Hinata were there, but Hinata seemed to be hurt. She was being held by a shirtless Sasuke, and Neji saw that Sasuke had used his shirt to swaddle Hinata's leg. The once blue shirt was now crimson.

"What happened?"

"Hinata needs to get help. Now!"

Neji didn't waste any time in leading Sasuke into the house and down one of the hallways to a room that had a bed and first aid products in it. He threw open the door and flicked on the lights. Sasuke quickly ran to the bed and tenderly laid Hinata down on it.

Neji rummaged through the cabinets and grabbed a first aid kit and tossed it to Sasuke, who caught it and opened it. He proceeded to take the shirt off of Hinata's leg and reached over to the sink next to him, wetting a towel and gently cleaning away the blood.

"Neji. Come over here." Neji glared at Sasuke (he did hate him with a burning passion, after all), but went over. "She got this cut from a bottle that fell on the ground and shattered. Use your Byakugan to see where all the glass is."

Neji ignored the fact that he was taking orders from Sasuke and kept in mind that this was all for Hinata. He engaged his Byakugan and looked into the wound. He could see all the glass, and he put his hand out palm up. "Give me some tweezers." Sasuke grabbed the tweezers and gave them to Neji.

Hinata's eyes cracked open slightly, but she had a headache and the light only made her head pound more. She closed them again quickly and instead make a noise to let whoever was there know that she was conscious. She felt a hand on her leg and recognized Neji's voice. "Hinata, it's going to be ok. We're going to fix your leg now. This is going to hurt though. Are you ready?" Hinata gulped and needed something to grab onto. She felt around for something, and finally found a hand lying near her. She grabbed it, and although it didn't grab back, it didn't pull away either. She nodded her head and got ready for the pain.

Neji looked at Sasuke, who was looking at his hand that Hinata was grabbing. Neji's mind was full of rage that someone like Sasuke was with Hinata in the first place, but on top of all that now Hinata was using him for comfort. But, he could worry about that later. Right now Hinata's leg was first priority. He leaned in, focused on the shards, and got to work.

***

Hinata could only remember an almost unbearable pain coming from her leg as Neji dug around in it with the sharp tweezers. Her eyes stung with tears, but she didn't let any fall. She just concentrated on how Neji was helping her, and how she could feel Sasuke next to her. She knew that it was Sasuke because Neji asked him a couple times to wet a cloth so that he could mop up the blood.

Soon enough, the pain became too much to bear and Hinata slipped out of consciousness, leaving all the pain behind and entering into the black.

***

Sasuke and Neji finished the job a couple hours later. Soon after Hinata passed out, they finished getting all the glass out. Then they had to stitch up her leg. Sasuke have Neji a break and did the stitching himself, taking careful care to make it as painless as he could for Hinata.

After the job, the two boys leaned back in their chairs and rested. They cleaned all the blood up from their hands and Hinata's leg, clanged the sheets on the bed, made sure that Hinata was comfortable, and Neji got Sasuke a black shirt from his room so that he didn't have to walk around shirtless.

They were both silent as they rested. They hadn't said anything to each other for a while, and they didn't want to. Since Hinata was all taken care of, their hate for each other started to surface again and they refused to be any closer to each other than being on complete opposite sides of the room.

Neji wanted to thank Sasuke for helping his cousin, and Sasuke wanted to thank Neji for his aid in getting all the glass out, but they refused to speak.

Hours passed and nothing happened other then Hinata's occasional stirring. She was sleeping now, and would be up in a while. Sasuke looked up to Neji after a while and Neji looked up at the same moment. They made eye contact, and they simply nodded to each other. That was all the thanks that was going to be given, and that was all they needed to do. They could tell that the other was thankful.

Sasuke broke the eye contact and looked over at Hinata. She was peaceful looking, and it was strange to think that only a couple hours earlier she was writhing in pain. He sighed and leaned his head back in his chair, deciding to follow Hinata's lead and catch some sleep. It was into the early morning right now, and he would have to call Kakashi later and explain why they may have to close the shop for the day, but he could worry about that all later.

Hinata was safe. That was all that mattered.


	7. tea and water

Hey guys. I am SO sorry that this is out to late!! I've been really busy with school projects and studying and tests and homework and ARGH! I'm really sorry if this is choppy or seems badly written, but it's really early in the morning as I'm writing this. :P

But, thankfully, only about two weeks left of school, so I'll be done soon and I'll be updating more! Thank you all so much for being patient with me. I know that I'm absolutely awful.

Incidentally, I just learned this weekend that there is actually a coffee place near my house named The Coffee Shop. I never knew that! Well, great minds think alike, I suppose. :]

STORY START:

Hinata's head was killing her. She felt completely drained, and she was aching all over. She had been awake for a while now, but had just been trying to fall asleep again to try and escape the pain, especially the pain in her leg. She groaned softly and decided trying to open her eyes.

It felt like someone was stabbing a knife into her eyeballs as she pried her eyelids back, and she gave a yelp of pain as she quickly shut them again. She felt stirring around her and instantly felt bad that she had disturbed the people who were apparently in the room with her.

"Close the blinds and turn all the lights off." She heard someone ordering someone else around and she heard angry but hurried footsteps moving across the room and instantly she felt cooler because of the shade that was now consuming the room. She tried opening her eyes again, and although it still hurt, it was not nearly as much pain as before. Her slightly-open eyes looked around the room. No one made a sound or a movement around her. They just seemed to be waiting for her.

"W-Who's there?" Hinata's voice cracked slightly from not having used it for a bit, and she heard held breaths being let out.

"Good morning Hinata." She recognized Neji's voice again, and felt better. She trusted Neji a lot and felt safe with him in the room. "It's just me and some of the servants. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling o-ok." She tried to remember what had been going on when she had last fallen under. She remembered being out with Sasuke doing the shopping, then they were in front of the gate. That was right! And then the bag broke and Sasuke took her inside to get fixed up. He had picked her up and carried her inside, and Neji was there too. They both patched her up. That was the reason why her leg hurt so much.

Hinata's eyebrows came together in confusion and she spoke up. "Umm . . . w-where's Sasuke?"

***

Sasuke was miserable. He had tried to get into contact with Kakashi, but he hadn't picked up his phone. Even though he wanted to stay with Hinata, he guessed that if he didn't show up that Kakashi would fire them both for not being there.

So, Sasuke was in the Coffee Shop. He was serving people their drinks, and he was too sad and worried to be that rude to anyone (he even sort of apologized to a man who was ordering because he had ordered the special flavored coffee that Hinata usually made, and since Hinata wasn't there, there was no special coffee today. Just the usual). Kakashi kept shooting him weird looks, but he didn't care. The only thing on his mind – or the only person – was Hinata.

"Sasuke." Sasuke looked up to see Kakashi looking at him with worry drawn across his face. "Are you ok?"

Sasuke sighed and nodded. He wasn't going to tell Kakashi that Hinata was the reason why he was so down. The only thing that Kakashi would probably do is make fun of him and start getting on his nerves, and that was the last thing anyone would want to do. Worry and sadness could quickly turn to anger.

And, of course, a couple minutes later his blood began to boil. Why, do you ask? Because Mr. Carrot-Top himself walked through the door in all his eyebrow-less glory. Sasuke growled under his breath and was ready to get into a fight when all of a sudden Gaara stopped, looked around, and took a seat at one of the tables.

Sasuke, confused, kept an eye on him, and for a good 30 minutes Gaara just sat there staring off into space, occasionally looking around the shop, and then zoning out again. Sasuke cooled off a bit and calmed down in that time when Gaara just hung out, but soon got annoyed that he was taking up valuable space in the shop.

"Hey bastard. Are you going to order something or just loiter all day?" Gaara's eyes flickered over to Sasuke, who had just spoken to him, and gave him a look that clearly said "don't-mess-with-me". Sasuke gave him the same look and untied his apron. "Hey Kakashi. I'm taking my breaks right now."

Sasuke moved towards the door when he saw Gaara move. "Uchiha." Sasuke looked back, glaring. Gaara looked disgusted that he was voluntarily talking to him, but pressed on. "Where's Hinata?"

***

Hinata contently sipped at a nice cup of tea. She was still in the bed. She had tried to walk before, but pain shot up her leg when she tried to put weight on it, so she had lain back down and Neji offered to make her some tea. There were tea leaves floating throughout the overly-sweet liquid, and the water wasn't hot enough, but she didn't mind. Neji had taken the time to make it for her, so she happily sipped every last drop and kindly declined when he offered to get her more. She loved how she was so special to Neji. He was one of the only people that made her feel this special. There were only two other people who made her feel like that, and that was Sasuke and Gaara.

She blushed as she thought of what Sasuke did for her. He not only helped her, but he had stayed with her until the morning, which is what Neji had told her. Neji had told her everything that happened from the moment that he opened the door until when she woke up just a couple hours earlier. She made a mental note to buy Sasuke another shirt, since his other one got ruined.

"Neji. Would you like to play some chess?" Neji gave her a rare smile and left the room to get the chess board. Hinata closed her eyes and daydreamed, but she was interrupted when she hard the doorbell ring. She wondered who was there and was about to get up when she remembered that she was injured. She simply sat back and waited.

A couple minutes later, someone silently opened the door, and she greeted who was there. "H-hello--." She was caught off guard and her greeting trailed off when she saw who was there. Three people filed into the room, and she was left to sit there in confusion and mild concern, blushing and gulping her air down.

First to come in was Neji, the second was Sasuke, and bringing up the rear was Gaara.

This wasn't going to turn out well.

***

_FLASHBACK_

Sasuke stared at Gaara for a couple had asked where Hinata was, but Sasuke was wondering if he should tell him the truth. Gaara walked closer and asked again in an annoyed voice. "Where is Hinata, Uchiha?"

"It's none of your business." Sasuke started to turn away, but quickly stopped and froze when he felt something brush against his leg. He looked down slowly to see some sand starting to inch up his calf, almost to his thigh.

"It is all my business." Gaara's voice sounded murderous, and Sasuke felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. He wasn't scared, but he felt a shiver go up his spine.

Sasuke didn't want to tell him where she was, but he also knew that the sand could easily kill him. He angrily let out a breath and held up his hands. "Ok, I'll take you to where she is. Just get your sand off of me." He instantly felt the sand around his leg drop off, and he glared back to Gaara as he violently threw open the front door, storming out and feeling Gaara following him.

Soon Gaara caught up to him, and the two walked side-by-side down the street (well, they were far apart form each other, but still pretty much side-by-side). Neither of them said a word, and neither wanted to.

Sasuke's head was burning with questions about how Gaara felt about Hinata and why he wanted to see her so badly, but he didn't ask.

Gaara wanted to ask Sasuke how he felt about Hinata and why he was acting like he was the only person who was allowed to see her, but he didn't ask.

Neither of them did.

They just slowly but surely made their way over to the compound that was holding Hinata.

_END FLASHBACK_

***

10 minutes.

20 minutes.

30 minutes.

The time simply crawled by in the small room that held a bed and three chairs, all occupied. Hinata was permanently red by this point in embarrassment and fear as to what would happen. She could almost see the hate radiating off of the three boys sitting in front of her. They didn't look at each other, but she would feel that they were holding themselves back from killing the other two.

Hinata coughed, and she saw all three of the boys twitch, as if they were about to get up and check on her. However, none of them did.

She was starting to get really annoyed here. They were all being so childish. It was almost painful to watch them act like this. You would think that she would be happy that her three favorite people in the world were in the same room with her, but she wasn't happy. She was just miserable.

Sighing, Hinata picked up the glass of water from her bedside table and drained it thirstily. The cold, clear liquid falling down her throat felt like heaven, and she was happy again for a moment. That is, until the water was gone. Then she remembered her current predicament and drifted back into the painful reality of what was really happening.

She gathered up her courage and finally asked softly "E-excuse me, but w-would a-any of you m-mind g-getting me some m-more w-water?" She was relieved to see all three of them get up, but the relief was soon flooded by despair when she saw the looks on their faces.

"Hey you two, back off. I'll get it." Neji started towards the bed, but was stopped short.

"No, I'm going to. I haven't taken care of her since I left this morning, so I should get it." Sasuke shoved Neji back while he said this, and although the words sounded nice and considerate, his tone of voice was like a machete.

"I'm getting it." Gaara moved in front of Sasuke and made a grab for the glass. However, Neji had gotten over Sasuke's shove and was now also reaching for the glass. Soon it was an all-out tug of war between Gaara, Neji, and Sasuke, who had joined in soon after it first started.

Hinata tried to interject. "Hey, g-guys?"

The voices kept on rising, and it was starting to get more physical.

"H-Hey!" Hinata tried to speak more forcefully, but her words were drained out by the insults that the three boys were throwing at each other.

"Ass hole!"

"Freak!"

"Bastard!"

"SHUT UP!" The three boys paused and stopped fighting and turned to look at a fuming Hinata who was sitting in her bed angrily. Her face was pink from the yelling, and she wasn't looking happy. The three boys looked at each other and set the glass down on the table guiltily. They slinked back to their seats and sat down, waiting for Hinata to calm down again.

After cooling off, Hinata looked at each of them in turn.

Her loving cousin Neji.

Her best friend Gaara.

Her strong and silent prince Sasuke.

"W-what's wrong with you three?"


	8. agreements and history

I'm giving you all permission to hate me, just so you know.

I know that it's been SO long, and I'm SO sorry!

But now that my schedule is back on track, I'm going to update every week (mostly every weekend), and I will keep that promise! Cross my heart and hope to die! And if I DON'T, then you can all send me hate mail and I'll take all of the punches : P

So as a pitiful attempt to make you all forgive me, this one will be LONG! And I didn't read through it a second time because I wanted to get it out sooner, so here you go!

I'm really sorry if there are typos!

Enjoy!

________________________________________________________________________

Hinata waited for the three boys to answer her question. When none of them made any attempt to answer, she said it once more, more forcefully this time. "What's wrong with you three?"

***

Sasuke sat there and felt horrible. The three of them were making her upset, but it was just in their nature to fight. They all hated each other so much that it was almost impossible to be in the same room with each other and not battle.

_It's still not my fault. It's those other two._

He dared to look up at Hinata and caught a look at her eyes. They were tie-dyed with different emotions. There was exhaustion, anger, sadness, and just a shred of hope. If the situation wasn't so somber, he would have smirked at Hinata's child-like innocence. After all of the fighting and confrontations, she still believed that it was all going to be ok.

He glanced over at the other two, and noticed that they were both sitting the same as him: like a small schoolboy sitting in the middle of a crowded classroom, getting yelled at and chided by the teacher for something wrong that he did. It felt horrible.

***

Hinata sighed and closed her eyes softly. "Ok. Since n-none of you are going to talk, I will." She leaned forward and looked at each of them intently, attempting to make eye contact, but only succeeding for a split second with Sasuke. She saw a quick look of something in his eyes, but it was too quick to make anything of it.

"I don't know what's g-going on between you three, but it's getting r-really . . . well, frankly, it's annoying. All three of you are a large part of my life, and with all three of you fighting all of the time, m-my life feels separated into three completely different parts." She looked at each of them in turn and felt sorry for them, but this needed to be said to them. "A-and if you three don't start getting along . . . well . . . I'll have to cut ties with you all."

***

Sasuke's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

_What did she say!?_

Before Hinata could continue, however, a maid poked her head into the room. "Ummm . . . i-is everything ok?"

Hinata smiled at her and nodded. "Yes, thank you. I actually think that I need some rest. Would y-you three mind leaving?" She looked pained and worried, but her intent was clear. She wanted the three of them to talk it over.

They got up one by one, not wanting to be the first one to exit the room. Fleeting looks were tossed back to Hinata as they all were ushered out by the maid. Once they were out in the hallway, they all exchanged looks. Needless to say, the looks were far less than the usual hate that they shared between them.

Minutes later the three boys were sitting in a room with a warm atmosphere made up of wooden bookcases filled with leather-bound books, large chairs the color of red velvet cake, and soft lighting that came from hand-made stained-glass lamps. However, as warm and comforting the room was, the mood set by the boys was so cold that the warm was overpowered.

Neji cleared his throat and decided to be the one to start. "Well, we all heard what Hinata said."

"Yes."

"Hn."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed as he looked at the other two. "Well it's plain to see that we need to start getting along, at least while Hinata is in the vicinity."

"Yes, but that's easier said than done." Gaara mumbled out his sentence through gritted teeth.

"Hey, none of us are happy about this, but we all care about Hinata, right?" Neji and Gaara both nodded sadly. How could one quiet, shy girl have so much power over three of the biggest hot-shots and best ninjas around? "So just as long as Hinata is around, we need to at least not rip each other's throats out."

"I can agree to that."

"So can I."

"So it's an agreement then."

The trio looked at each other, each of them so different, yet so similar. All of them were brought to this spot by the same lavender-eyed girl, and none of them wanted to lose her.

It's surprising how the feeling of love can extinguish even the most roaring fires.

***

The next morning, Sasuke was at work again. Going over the things that have happened to him lately, it feels like a year has gone by instead of simply a couple of days. There has just been so much commotion that it feels impossible that the hours have just crawled past him. But it was the truth, and Sasuke was back in The Coffee Shop, making the coffee, dealing with the rabid customers, and always having the majority of his mind on Hinata and whether she was well or not. He had already burned his hand more than once on scalding coffee because he was so deep in thought.

Dealing with the customers wasn't easy, as per usual. In addition to him being really out of it, it turns out that pretty much every girl in Konoha was dropping in. He was making yet another cup of coffee that had a name that he could hardly pronounce when he noticed the crowd parting slightly, and through the part came his worst nightmares.

Sakura and Ino.

Sure, for a while they backed off of him, but for some reason they just came back, and now it was getting impossible to shake them. They were almost always in the little groups hanging outside his gate in the mornings, and they always came in for coffee. However, Hinata wasn't there, so he had absolutely no buffer. And to make it worse, Kakashi bailed to go and get "groceries". Sasuke put 10 dollars on him coming back with a new Come Come Paradise book in his greedy, perverted fingers.

Sakura and Ino were coming ever closer, and he could see that they were trying to saunter over really smoothly. Ino could have pulled it off, but Sakura just looked constipated. They finally both made it over, and rested their elbows on the counter and batted their eyelashes at him. Sasuke made a disgusted sound as if he were looking at a big fat roach, but the two girls never seemed to get the picture. They always were just blissfully unaware about how much Sasuke wanted to kill them.

"Hello there Sasuke-kun! Fancy meeting you here."

"I work here."

"Pft, yeah Ino. He works here!"

Sasuke repressed the urge to ask if Sakura wanted a cracker. "What do you want?"

"I'll have . . . hmmmm . . ."

"Jeez, you're slow! Let's see Sasuke, I'll have the . . . umm . . ."

Sasuke massaged his eyes with the heels of his hands. He couldn't take much more of this! "Look, either you get something, or get out." Even before he had finished saying that, though, he realized that it was all just white noise to them. They were too busy letting their minds wander to actually listen to what he said.

_Hinata always listens to what I say._

"Ok, I got it! I'll have the . . . no, wait . . ."

Sakura tapped her chin, and if Sasuke wasn't on the job, he would have tapped that chin REALLY hard for her. As the two girls still stood there and Sasuke wondered whether the job was worth it, he heard the door open and two people walked in, followed by a third. The three walked up to the counter, and the two men in front tapped Sakura and Ino on the shoulders.

"Hey, hurry up."

"Back off! We'll take our time, you got that?" Ino turned around and choked on her words as she came face to face with an angry looking Neji. Sakura followed in the same way, except she was looking into the face of Gaara, who on a usual occasion would look angry, but now he looked just plain murderous.

The two girls spattered and stumbled to get out of the way of the duo. Sasuke's eyebrows rose to the ceiling as the two boys came up to the counter and even game him small smiles of relief. Sasuke's eyes looked past the two and saw the third person hiding in the back. Only when Neji reached back and pulled her forward did he see the whole of Hinata, ready to work again, smiling at him and blushing madly.

She was back.

"Hello S-Sasuke-kun."

"Welcome back Hinata."

***

Hinata was relieved to be back at work after her accident. It had felt like she was recovering for months and months, when in reality it was only a couple days. She wondered if anyone else felt like that.

It felt good to be back behind the counter. However, she didn't really like how Neji and Gaara had bullied Sakura and Ino into moving out of the way. As distant and sometimes rude as they have been to her, no one deserved those two in their faces. They could stop the ocean from moving with one glare if they wanted to.

She tied her apron around her waist and started to pull out all of the ingredients for a new coffee that she came up with the day before. This one was going to be a blend of vanilla and paprika. She began to mix all of the ingredients together, and soon she was holding yet another cup of coffee out to Sasuke to taste.

Sasuke sniffed the hot drink and sipped a small bit of it. "Well Hinata, you made another masterpiece."

Hinata, of course, blushed as she smiled. "T-thank you Sasuke-kun." Grabbing the chalk, she started to write the new coffee up on the chalkboard.

It was about at that moment that Sasuke noticed that Neji and Gaara were still standing near the counter. They were of course facing away from each other, but they were still there none the less. "Hey, why don't you two either buy something or move it? You're hurting busi-" Sasuke stopped and glanced over at Hinata, who had slowed down her writing and looked over her shoulder. Sasuke let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean . . . ergh . . . would you two please move out of the way so we can service our other customers?" Sasuke could tell that he had done well, because he soon heard the chalk scraping against the chalkboard once again.

Gaara and Neji both smoothly moved out of the way and sat over at one of the other tables, again not sitting next to each other, but at completely different sides of the table. Sasuke sighed again and got back to work.

Later on that day, when Hinata passed Sasuke, she touched his back softly and said "thank you Sasuke-kun" and flashed him an angelic smile. He couldn't help but smile back and think that maybe there would be something in it for him if he was nice to those guys.

***

It had been basically the same routine every day for about 4 days straight. Sasuke would get in early and open up shop, Hinata would arrive a couple minutes later, being led in by Neji and/or Gaara(whichever ones were free that day), and they would go and sit at a table while Sasuke and Hinata worked. He was irked that he never had any alone time with Hinata, but there was something good about them coming over every day. You see, now Sasuke wasn't the only good-looking guy in the shop. Now, Gaara and Neji were both attracting girls too, so more business was pouring in than ever. Also, with the help of Hinata's coffee, they were getting many adults and boys in there too.

There was, however, one thing that still was poking at the back of Sasuke's mind. And that was: how did Gaara feel about Hinata? He knew for a fact that she simply viewed him as a friend, but was it the same the other way around? Sasuke had seen the way that Gaara looked at Hinata. It looked like, to him at least, that friendship was not the only thing in his mind.

Sasuke popped the question to him one day while on his break. Gaara had been the only one to accompany Hinata that day. Neji had to do some training with his father, and Gaara took the day off of his duties to sit at one of the tables in the shop. Sasuke slipped off his apron and set it down on the back counter and cautiously approached Gaara. He wasn't scared of him by any means, but he was worried that they wouldn't be able to refrain from ripping each other apart.

He sank into the chair that sat across from Gaara and stared at him in the eyes. "I'm not here to make chit-chat. I'm here with one question and one question only." Gaara just simply looked at him with cold eyes, and Sasuke continued. "I know that Hinata sees you as a best friend, but I'm not sure that it's the same way around. So my question is: how do you feel about Hinata?"

Gaara sat silently for a couple minutes, until he finally asked back "what do you mean, Uchiha?"

"You know what I mean." Sasuke's anger was rising. "I've seen the way that you look at her."

"You mean the same way that you look at her?"

Sasuke's face flushed and he inhaled deeply. "Don't change the subject. Just answer my question."

Gaara leaned forward and said in a low voice filled with malice, "And if I don't?"

"Then I can make sure that you never set foot in this shop again."

Gaara glared daggers at Sasuke, and he returned the favor. They only stopped when they saw Hinata out of the corner of their eyes looking at them. They both leaned back in their chairs, and Sasuke waited for Gaara's answer.

It took a couple minutes, but Gaara finally grunted and started his answer. "When I first met Hinata, there was no one in my life that showed me any sort of love, whether it be romantic or friendship. My siblings were scared stiff of me, as were my subjects and my servants, and no one would come close to me in any way. But when Hinata showed up and showed me kindness, I felt the feeling at I believed to be love. I loved her."

Gaara closed his eyes and continued. "I never wanted her to leave my side. She was the only person that I loved, and I never wanted to let her go. My plan was to marry her, and never again would I have to be lonely. However, that's not how it ended up being. It soon became very clear that Hinata didn't want to be lovers. She saw me as a very good friend, but I could tell after a while that the line between friends and lovers would be impossible to cross. She would confide in me, as I did her, and she would tell me of the people in Konoha and how there was one special boy that she always liked, but never was able to get close enough too." When Gaara opened his eyes, there was a tinge of sadness in them. "She would never love me."

There was a silent moment, and Gaara's eyes stoned up again, making them once again impossible to read. "Soon, it was time for her to leave. Her mission came to an end, and she left for Konoha."

_:Flashback:_

"_Goodbye G-Gaara-kun. I'll miss you." Hinata gave him a smile, and he smiled back, which was very rare._

"_I'll miss you too Hinata. I hope . . . that boy back in Konoha notices you."_

"_Thank you Gaara-kun." Hinata gave him a quick hug, which he returned for a short second, and she was off._

_:End Flashback:_

"After she left, I felt the absence of her as if I had lost some of my body. Nothing was the same. But Hinata had given me the strength to be more open to some people. Soon I was talking more with my siblings and my full-time workers, and although no one would ever get the same treatment as Hinata, I tried my best to make some friendships."

Gaara looked over at Hinata quickly, and then closed his eyes once more. "So to answer your question, I used to love her. But, after she left, I realized that I only really loved her because she was the only person TO love. At this time she is my closest friend, but I am no longer in love with her in a romantic way." Gaara opened his eyes and leaned forward once again, looking Sasuke square in the eyes, not breaking contact once. "Hear me Uchiha, and listen well. I may not be in love with her anymore, but I would still kill an entire village for her. She is the most important person in my life. If I find out that you or Neji have hurt her in any way or so much as made her frown, I will put you both through so much agony that you will beg for death."

Sasuke leaned forward, almost touching noses with the red-haired Kazekage. His voice was chilling, but Sasuke knew that that would not phase Gaara in the slightest. "The same goes for me."

Gaara's nose wrinkled as if he smelled something horrible. "I bet."

"Sasuke-kun, would you mind helping me?" Sasuke looked up at Hinata, whose arms were full of coffee cups, and quickly got up out of the chair, reaching for his apron. With one last look back at Gaara, sitting in the chair staring at the table, he got back to work.

***

At closing time, it was only Sasuke and Hinata left. Gaara had to go to visit the Hokage and discuss some issues, and all the customers were gone. They were both just cleaning up, waiting for Kakashi to get back with the supplies that they had sent him out to get . . . 12 hours ago.

"D-do you think he'll be back soon, Sasuke-kun?"

"He better." Sasuke was wiping down the counter, and Hinata was clearing the last of the tables and putting up the chairs. Hinata quickly finished and placed the plates and cups in the dish washer so that they would be clean the next morning.

"Ummmm . . .S-Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke turned around and saw Hinata standing there, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "I n-never got to properly t-thank you for helping me."

"Oh." Sasuke was taken by surprise for a moment, but soon gained back his laid-back attitude. "It was no problem Hinata." He went back to cleaning the counter, but stopped when he felt arms wrapping around him from the back. He felt a hot face being buried into his back, and his face soon became the same temperature.

"T-thank you, S-Sasuke-kun." Sasuke's heart was racing, and he put his hands softly on hers. He loosened her arms and turned around to face her. She looked up at him in worry, as if she thought that he was angry that she hugged him, but soon his arms were around her, his face buried in her hair. He loved the smell of her hair, the softness of her arms, and how it felt like her body was almost made to have his arms around it.

"Hinata . . ." She looked up at him with innocent eyes; those eyes that looked so blind yet saw everything. Her face was still crimson, as was his he was sure, and she looked beautiful in the dim lighting. Slowly they both started to lean forward. Their hearts were about to burst out of their chests, but they didn't care. They were in their own little bubble.

Soon they were only about an inch away from each other. They both slowly closed their eyes, and Sasuke leaned forward to try and close the space.

But, of course, at that moment when their lips were only a breath away from touching, a booming voice rumbled through the shop.

"Sasuke! Hinata! I'm back!"

Sasuke and Hinata let go of each other and flew to opposite sides of the area. Hinata ended up near the coffee brewers, and Sasuke ended up leaned against the counter with the edge making a bruise in his side.

Kakashi looked at both of the teenagers. Both of their faces were red, they were breathing heavily, and they seemed somewhat flustered. A perverted grin spread across his face. "So Sasuke." He walked to the counter and leaned over it, sticking his face in Sasuke's. "What were you two up to while I was gone?"

"Oh, you know, just running your coffee shop without you. Same as always." Sasuke tried to make his voice seem steady and solid, but Kakashi picked up a slight falter in his voice.

"Really? Because you guys seem really tired. Were you doing extreme cleaning? Or perhaps you were up to something else." The perverted grin widened and Kakashi's eyebrows rose up and down suggestively. Sasuke's face got even redder and he turned around to the sink to "wash his hands".

"You're crazy Kakashi. Nothing was going on."

Kakashi smiled innocently and turned to Hinata. "Hinata, how are you?"

"I-I'm f-fine Kakashi-s-senei! H-how are y-you?"

"I'm well, thank you."

Hinata fumbled with her apron and threw it off, hurrying around Sasuke and heading for the door. "I-I'll s-see you b-both t-tomorrow then!" And with that she ran off into the night. Sasuke sighed once again and ran his hands under some ice cold water to try and cool off. He cupped some water in his hands and splashed it on his face, splattering some of the water on the floor in the process.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke turned around with a death glare on his face, but it soon dissipated when he saw the serious look on Kakashi's face. He looked down as he grabbed a towel and dired off his face. "What is it Kakashi?"

"I know what's going on. I can tell by how you act around her. Just be careful, alright?"

Sasuke stared at Kakashi for a moment. Why was everyone telling him that same thing? "What's it to you?"

Kakashi's mouth spread into a somber smile. "You may not think so Sasuke, but you're like a son to me . . . well, in a way. I care about you. I just want to make sure that you're not going to be hurt."

"She would never hurt me."

"No, but Neji would. And what about her father? And also Gaara. In a fight between you and those three, you'll always lose." Sasuke stared at the ground once again. "Just be careful, ok?"

Kakashi pushed off of the counter and headed for the door, but very slowly this time. Sasuke's mind raced and his mind was swimming with thoughts, but only one slipped out before Kakashi left the shop.

"Hey Kakashi." Kakashi's hand paused while on the door handle. "How can you tell how I feel?"

When Kakashi turned around, Sasuke could see a melancholy smile on his face. "That's because I felt that way once too." He waved his hand in goodbye, and he was finally gone. Sasuke dropped the towel on the counter near the sink and grabbed his keys to he could lock up.

His mind was still buzzing as he finished closing up shop and started walking home. How could everyone see how he felt about Hinata? He himself wasn't even completely sure how he felt about her. Yes, it felt like love, but was it love or lust that he was feeling? He wasn't sure about the difference.

But it couldn't be lust, because he cared about her. When he thought about her, the first thing that came to mind was not her body or her face, but her personality and how she made him feel a thousand feet tall. It was her innocence, but at the same time it was her power and energy. It was her ability to fight like a pro, but also her ability to touch him softly in passing. It was her stuttering, soft voice, and also it was her voice that could break down a stone wall.

Her intellect and ignorance.

Her blindness and her sight that saw no boundaries.

Everything about her drew him to her in its own way. Her beauty did also, but that wasn't the first thing on his list, or even the second. She had a complete hold on his heart, and he was just realizing it. It was him who was the ignorant one.

He loved her. He stopped and stared forward. He was at his house by this time, and he was face to face with his family's symbol. His family and the Hyuugas were never on very friendly terms. Even now with him being the only one left of his clan, he was only on good terms with one of them. But that one, small, frail, big, strong girl was enough.

". . . I love her." No, that wasn't powerful enough, even when said out loud. Who did he love?

"I love Hinata. I love Hinata Hyuuga." The feeling in his heart told him that he was right. He was in love with her. He imagined himself for a moment being like one of the characters in the movies where they ran around after they realized that they loved the other person and would run up to people on the street and shake their hands and yell at the tops of their lungs "I LOVE HER!"

"Hn. That's not my style." Sasuke smiled to himself and headed inside. Maybe he wasn't as dramatic as most people were, but he was happy with how he was acting. After all, even though he just realized that he loved her, there were still many, many hurdles to cross.

The biggest one being: how to get on the good side of Hinata's family and Gaara.

But, there was no use trying to rush that. Sasuke didn't think that he would be able to do that very easily OR quickly, as hard as he tried. So, he would just work on it little by little. He headed upstairs and started changing to go to bed. With good luck, his dreams would be filled with Hinata so that he wouldn't have to be away from her for one more second.


	9. decorations and women

Ok, no dilly dallying this time. We're going right into the story.

Enjoy!

STORY START:

*Two Months Later*

In the morning, Sasuke woke up and went through his usual routine. And, as usual, he was out of the house soon enough and walking the same route to work. Same old, same old.

It had been a couple months since he said that he loved Hinata out loud to himself, and he had been putting his nose to the grind to find out what Hinata thought of him in return. He knew that they were friends, but he wanted to know if there was even the slightest chance that Hinata could ever fall for him the way that he had fallen head-over-heels for her. It had been two months full of trying to get alone with her, only to be foiled in every attempt one way or another. The interruptions varied from Kakashi to Gaara to a late-night customer to a couple weeks ago when Sasuke got the stomach flu and threw up right when he was sure something was about to happen. The only thing that happened that day was Hinata cleaning up his barf while he lay out on the counter and recuperated. But she did end up taking care of him for a few days after that while he was getting better. Although Kakashi still made him come to work, Hinata would make him soup and snacks all the time. Also, she would take his temperature by gently laying her forehead on his. It was a good thing that his face was so red because of the fever. That way she never saw him blushing.

He was scratching his head lightly when the shop finally came into view, and Sasuke could tell right away that something was amiss. "Huh . . . That's weird . . ." Sasuke was standing in front of the shop, but it didn't look like The Coffee Shop at all. There were things hanging all over the place such as orange and black streamers and orange lights, as well as pumpkins, skeletons, bats, and the occasional witch or zombie everywhere. Sasuke thought back to only about an hour earlier when he had looked at the calendar in his kitchen. The date had been Saturday, October 25th. It never even registered in his mind that Halloween was coming up!

Sasuke made his way through the decorations and opened the doors, stepping into a completely transformed shop. No longer was it a cozy little coffee den, but rather it was a dark dungeon with metal benches and chairs for sitting on. The walls were adorned with more decorations, and the most realistic one out of the lot was the skeleton (of what looked like a "prisoner") that was in a crippled mass on the floor, hands chained to the wall.

Sasuke side-stepped a couple fake stones and brushed away a cobweb or two and finally made it to the counter. Hinata was in back of it, in her usual clothing, mixing together new coffees in a big, black cauldron.

"Oh! H-hello Sasuke-kun!"

"Hello Hinata. Did you do all of this? It's fantastic."

Hinata blushed and continued mixing. "Ah, well, I d-decided that I would just get the shop into the holiday s-spirit, is all!" She had two coffee cups next to her, one labeled "pumpkin spice" and the other "midnight licorice". Sasuke smiled and took his apron out of the usual place, tying it in the same-old fashion as usual, and started helping Hinata. As usual. He took a tray of black cat cookies and scones shaped like bats and put them in the see-through cabinet along with the rest of the sweets. There were already chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes in there, and they were still warm. Sasuke looked back to Hinata, who was busy with her concoctions, and took a cupcake out, eating it as he worked. The chocolate was warm and gooey, and just as always, it was absolutely amazing. Everything Hinata did was as such.

"S-So Sasuke-kun. What are y-you going to be for Halloween?"

Sasuke hadn't put any thought into it, so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "I was thinking of being a . . . devil." He saw Hinata smile. "What about you, Hinata?"

"I-I'm not sure yet. There's n-nothing that really comes to mind r-right now."

"I think you would make a good angel." _That's what you are. You're an angel, and I'm just a dirty devil._

Hinata blushed and giggled. "I don't know. W-We'll see."

***

Hinata was a miracle worker! Not only had the decorations been flawless, but they were so scary that they were a repellent for all of Sasuke's stalkers. He didn't see Sakura or Ino or hardly any other girls come in. When guys (and some girls) walked in they stared in wonder at the decor and complimented them, but when a couple of the groupies tried to come in, they would be scared by a spider or the skeleton. They would rush out and Sasuke would stand there smiling.

"Oh, I hope I-I'm not ruining b-business."

"Nonsense!" The two turned to the door to see Kakashi walking in, one of his books tucked safely in his pocket. He was smiling like the sun (as far as they could tell from behind his mask), and walked up to Hinata, taking her hand and shaking it vigorously. Hinata's head shook like she was a bobble-head doll and her face flushed red. Sasuke hurried over and pried Hinata's hand out of Kakashi's grip, holding it for an extra second before letting her go. However, this didn't put a damper on Kakashi's mood. "Hinata, you did a fabulous job on these decorations! You're too good to us!"

"T-thank you K-Kakashi-Sensei!"

"No no no, thank YOU!" Kakashi made another grab for Hinata's hand, but Sasuke decided that that was the best time to intervene. He put a hand over Hinata, shielding her, and looked at Kakashi with annoyance.

"Why are you so happy about this Kakashi?"

"Well if you must know Sasuke, I just found out from the Hokage that this year Konoha will be having a contest for the best decorated shop in town! And with Hinata on our team, we'll without a doubt win!" Kakashi stepped behind the teens and wrapped an arm around each of them, pulling them close. Sasuke pried himself out of Kakashi's steel grip and did the same for Hinata.

"And what, may I ask, is the prize?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Kakashi pulled a magazine out of his back pocket and flipped through the pages, finally coming to one that he had doggie-flapped. He giggled as he held it out for Sasuke and Hinata to see. A picture was circled in big, black marker on the page. It was a picture of a big pile of money with two girls in bikinis diving in and out of it.

Sasuke and Hinata were quiet for a minute, staring at the picture.

"W-We win w-women and money?"

Kakashi's smile dropped. "Sadly, the girls are not included, but the money is!" His face lit up again and he rolled the magazine up, tucking it away again. "We win 10,000 dollars!"

Hinata and Sasuke's eyes widened. "10,000 dollars!?" It was way too good to be true! Sasuke thought about it and his eyes narrowed.

"Wait . . . how would be split up the money?"

"Well, rest assured that we would all get some of it! I would get the most, naturally, Hinata would get the second to top amount because it was all of her hard work, and Sasuke, you would get the smallest amount because you're a good-for-nothing."

"Hey! I bring in all of the customers!" Sasuke growled.

"Yeah, and you're always rude and violent towards them!"

"But they keep coming back, don't they!?"

"H-Hey! Stop it!" Hinata held up her hands and walked over to the fighting duo. "W-Why don't we just some of it a-aside for the shop, and t-then divide the r-rest up e-equally?"

Kakashi looked pensive for a moment, and then the shining smile was back in place. "Good thinking Hinata!" Sasuke rolled his eyes. Kakashi could be so stupid sometimes. Hinata smiled sweetly and nodded, happy that she could help break up the fight.

"Well, I'll be off now! I need to run some errands. Make sure to think about what your costumes will be, and start wearing them next week!" Kakashi sauntered out the doors and left Sasuke and Hinata looking at each other with puzzled expressions.

***

Sasuke and Hinata both walked out of the doors of the shop, locking up for their day off, both of them pondering what they would dress up as this Halloween.

"So S-Sasuke-kun. I was thinking that the shop c-could have a Halloween p-party on the 30th. What do you think?"

Sasuke thought about it and nodded. "It sounds like fun. And make sure to call me this time when you're setting up. I can't have you doing all of the work."

Hinata smiled. "Well, I-I don't mind. I think it's f-fun!"

Sasuke smiled back and itched to reach out and hold her. But, he held himself back and kept a respectable distance from her. It wasn't the right moment. "Well, none the less, I would like to help you."

"Ok Sasuke-kun. I'll t-tell you when I start s-setting up!" Hinata turned and started walking slowly, waiting for Sasuke to walk by her side like he always did. Sasuke hid his pained smile behind a content smirk and caught up to Hinata, the two of them walking side-by-side to their respectable homes.

***

Hinata walked inside and waved goodbye to Sasuke as she closed the door. She headed upstairs to her room, wondering what she would dress up as this year. Usually she just dressed in her normal clothes and passed out candy, but this year she wanted to dress to impress. Impress Sasuke, that is.

She wasn't exactly sure about her feelings for Sasuke at this time. She definitely liked him a lot, but she wasn't sure if it was love or not. She viewed him as one of the top males in her life, right along with Gaara and Neji, but the thing was that Gaara and Neji both had their labels. Gaara was her best friend and Neji was her loving cousin.

But what was Sasuke? She had been calling him her Prince, but that didn't necessarily mean that she loved him. She was confused about her feelings for him. She thought back to what he had said to her that morning. That she would make a good angel . . . and that he was thinking of being a devil.

"Maybe I _should_ be an angel?" She pondered her options as she trudged up the stairs. "Is an angel a good enough of a choice, though? It's not very original." Hinata looked in the hallway mirror, taking a lock of her hair, lifting it up, inspecting it, and letting it fall. Her skin was pale and clear, matching her eyes. Her hair was drastically darker than the rest of her features, being a deep, midnight blue. She imagined her hair adorned with a shining halo, her body decorated with a brilliantly white dress, dainty gold jewelry hanging off of her, and wings sprouting from her back.

She looked deep in the mirror and imagined Sasuke. His skin was darker than hers but still light and unclouded, his hair a raven black, matching his dark, shining eyes that seemed to see everything about her inside and out. She imagined him in tight, dark red jeans ornamented with chains, his shirt just as tight and a bright red color. He had studded bracelets, belt, and collar on, his features darker than usual, but the same devilish smirk playing on his face. She saw red horns emerging from his soft hair and a tail working its way up and twisting around her waist, pulling her closer to him, creating a sharp contrast between the red of his tail and the white of her dress. His dark eyes and her pale ones meet and her fair hands braid themselves through his shaded hair . . .

Hinata stepped back and blushed the same color that she imagined Sasuke's shirt to be. She ran into her room and slammed the door, leaning against it and breathing heavily. She stayed there, calming down for a few minutes, and finally got up and crawled into her bed.

"What am I thinking about?" Hinata shook her head and lay her head down on her pillow. "Oh well, a good night's sleep should remedy my foggy mind." Her eyes shut softly, and she fell asleep blushing, secretly hoping that she would have a dream where she and Sasuke would continue where they had left off.


	10. costumes and lists

**PLEASE READ:**

I just want to thank you guys SO much for reviewing/favoriting/etc. my story! You're all so supportive and nice, and when I read some of your reviews I burst out laughing (on a couple occasions I've started tearing up I'm laughing so hard! :D)! You all just make me so happy, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying with me and reading this. SasuHina isn't the most *cough* popular pairing, and I'm so unbelievably fortunate to have such awesome SasuHina supporters reading my fanfic! I honestly didn't think that anyone would read it! Hahaha

I just want to make sure you all know how much I love you! You're all amazing people, and I thank you with all of my heart 3

Ok, I just wanted to get that off of my chest! So let's get to this new chapter!

**OH**, and as far as Sasuke and Hinata's costumes go, if you guys need me to draw them out for you so you can tell what they're supposed to look like, just tell me and I'll do that!

STORY START:

It was a couple days before the Halloween party and Sasuke and Hinata were carrying a load of groceries into the shop. Kakashi had sent them out to get everything non-perishable for the party, and that included plates, silverware, chips, drinks, napkins, and ingredients for the deserts that Hinata would prepare. The morning of the day of the party they would get all of the entrées, bread, etc.

After the fiasco with carrying groceries last time, Sasuke was incredibly nervous about letting Hinata carry any of the bags, but he didn't say anything about it. He knew that Hinata would go crazy if she didn't help him carry them, so he let it go and simply kept a close eye on her.

Of course, Kakashi wasn't there when they got back to the shop, so they unloaded all of the groceries into the back room that they had previously cleared out and opened the shop for business. A busy day followed, and the whole day Sasuke and Hinata were thinking about their costumes. Sasuke felt like being a devil was the easiest thing, and as horribly, almost _unbearably _cliché it was for him to be a devil if Hinata was being an angel, he still felt like it sort of matched their personalities. Little did he know, but Hinata was thinking the same thing.

Hinata sneaked short glances at Sasuke throughout the day and could almost see the horns and tail sprouting from him, just like they did in her daydream the other day. She would blush every time and fumble around with her work, always worried that Sasuke would see her looking at him. As much as she tried to shake that dream away from her mind, it kept on coming back, and the kept on seeing Sasuke as a handsome devil, wrapping his tail around her and pulling her close.

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Hinata snapped out of her reverie to see Sasuke looking at her with minor concern. Oh no! She had been caught staring at him!

"Um . . . Uh . . . Sa- . . ." Hinata sputtered her words out, cursing herself for being so careless. She brushed her hands along the counter, purposefully knocking over a mug of coffee. "Oh! S-Sorry S-Sasuke-kun! I'll c-clean that up r-r-right away!" Thankfully Sasuke didn't think anything of it, and simply let her pass by him, run to the cleaning closet and try to calm down.

***

Hinata looked in the mirror again and sighed. She pulled and tugged at the silky white dress that she was wearing. The sleeves ended three quarters down the arm, it went down to her ankles, and it was unbelievably dull looking. She had worn it to a party months ago, but it had been appropriate in that setting. There were no beads or anything on there, and although she believed in the fact that something plain could be lovely, there was still something that the dress lacked. Hinata took the dress off, threw it over her sewing machine, and pulled on a t-shirt and pants to go and get something to eat out of the kitchen.

As she stepped out of the room, Hinata bumped into Neji, who was passing by at the moment.

"Oh! Neji-kun!"

"Hello Hinata. How are you?"

Hinata shot him an award winning smile. It always made her happy to talk with Neji. "I'm doing well! Oh, what were you thinking of being for Halloween? Y-you are coming to the party, right?"

"Of course Hinata." Neji hated the thought of being around Gaara and Sasuke and other people, but if it was for Hinata, he would do almost anything.

"Great! Well, r-remember to dress up, Neji-kun!"

"I will. Don't worry."

Hinata smiled back at him and quickly got out of his way. As she made her way down the stairs, she couldn't help but feel a swell of excitement. This was going to be a great party!

***

"Sasuke-kun, will you check on the noodles?"

"Sure, Hinata." Sasuke ran over to the pot of bubbling water and checked to see if the ramen noodles were done. "It looks like they need just a bit more time."

"Ok then. Thank you!" It was the morning of the Halloween party and Hinata was literally running around The Coffee Shop trying to get everything set. She was taking care of the cooking, and Sasuke was setting up all of the tables and chairs, adorning them with the decorations that Hinata had brought. Neither of them were in their costumes yet, but at the moment it was more important to get everything together. They could easily throw on their costumes later.

Hinata grabbed the paper that had all of the guests listed on it. They had decided to only invite their friends, because if not they would get bombarded by people. Hinata unravvled the paper and read all the names over again, making sure that they didn't forget anyone: Kakashi, Sasuke, Hinata, Gaara, Neji, Naruto, Sakura, Ino (Sasuke wasn't happy about those two coming, but Hinata insisted), Ten Ten, Choji, Kurenai, Kiba and Akamaru, Shino, Asuma, Rock Lee, Gai, and Kankuro and Temari, who Gaara invited to come out. Also the panel of judges for the decoration competition were coming out. That panel consisted of: Iruka, The Hokage (Taunade), and Jiraiya. It didn't look like they forgot anyone, so Hinata put the list down and turned her attention back to the cooking.

The day of preparation was very busy, but Sasuke and Hinata had pulled it off. Sasuke, of course, went on a rant about how Kakashi was the one who was good-for-nothing and how he should be helping, but Hinata soon calmed him down and finished putting the final touches to the tables and chairs. Hinata had had Neji help her make the tables and chairs so that they would match the rest of the dungeon décor.

The tables were made out of wood and looked crudely put together and dirty, and there were chains and shackles on them to make it look like people were strapped to them to be tortured. There were even streaks of fake blood on them. As far as the chairs went, they kept some of the metal ones that they already had out, and in addition to those there were "electric chairs" spread around the room, as well as some with just ordinary shackles on them. Sasuke and Hinata looked around the room and their work and smiled warmly at each other.

"Well, it's getting close to the time for the party to start."

"Yes. We should get our c-costumes on. Shall we meet back here in about an hour?"

Sasuke smiled again at Hinata and nodded.

***

Sasuke looked at himself in the mirror and sighed heavily. _What was I thinking?_ He looked down at his costume, and it wasn't that he disliked it, but he was unsure about wearing it out. Frankly, he was kind of embarrassed. His black leather pants were tight and made his skin sweat in his warm house. He was wearing a black button-up shirt with a red vest with black pinstripes, and a black ribbon with a red stripe running through it tied around his neck in substitution of a tie. His shoes were polished and shining black, and he had made a pair of horns that stuck out of his raven hair and a tail that poked out of a small incision that he had made in the back of his pants. He looked like a very classy devil; like the kind that you would expect to come up in a movie with a deck of cards and a glass of "wine" and play someone for their souls, or seduce young women to come back to his penthouse and spend the night. Basically, the usual classy, lusty, sexy devil.

Sasuke straightened his ribbon and sighed again. He would have gone without a costume to this thing, but since Hinata was expecting him to be in costume, he had to. Also, he had to admit that he looked very handsome in those clothes. The tight pants showed off his well-formed lower body, and the shirt and vest worked together to form against his sculpted upper body and his thin, but not too thin, waist.

Sasuke took one last look in the mirror and headed for the door. If he didn't leave now, he would surely talk himself out of this and disappoint Hinata. The door slowly closed and locked, and Sasuke started his walk back to The Coffee Shop.

***

Hinata looked at herself in the mirror and sighed heavily. _What was I thinking?_ Hinata had been working on her white dress, and it had turned out . . . differently than she had expected. It was now at a length that ended right above the knees, and she made the top of the dress look more like a long-sleeved peasant top. There was a small "V" taken out of the neck of the dress, and there was a piece of white string that was woven through the wholes that she made and hung loosely at the ends (A.N.: think of a pirate shirt and how there's that little thing in the front that you tie up . . . are you picturing any of this? Am I explaining it well enough??). A braided rope was tied around her small waist, acting as a belt, and she wore tan sandals like the ones that she saw in biblical pictures.

She hung some gold necklaces around her neck of all different lengths, a gold bracelet, and a gold anklet. She reached up and poked her wings that erupted from her back beautifully. They were pure white, like her dress, and rose up above her shoulders in height as well as almost touched the floor. A halo hung by an almost invisible wire that connected to the wings and gave off a soft, golden glow. Her hair gave off its usual sharp contrast against all of the white and her pale skin, and her eyes were just as lovely as always, although they gave away her worry.

Hinata wasn't sure about this. He wanted to impress Sasuke, yes, but she felt silly dressing up like this. She felt very awkward. She closed her eyes and fought with herself whether to just put her normal clothes on again, but she soon saw Sasuke's face in her mind, and that smile that he always gave her. A smile that told her that she would always be safe. That he would always be there.

Hinata smiled to herself and opened her eyes. She did some final touch-ups and made sure that her halo and wings were straight, and smiled and blushed to the mirror. "Well, here goes nothing!"

***

Sasuke fiddled with the keys, opening the door to the shop. Hinata wasn't there yet, and so he decided that he would just start making sure that everything was ready. He poured the drinks, took the plastic and foil off of the food, and picked up any stray pieces of garbage. He was determined to win that 10,000 dollars. Even though he wouldn't get all of it, he would definitely get a good amount, and he was pumped up for that. He could always use more money! Sasuke smiled to himself and threw the last of the garbage out.

He heard the door open, and he could sense that Hinata was there. "Hello Hinata." As he turned around, his breath caught in his throat.

She looked absolutely gorgeous. The angel costume that she was wearing suited her perfectly. The dress and wings were as un-soiled as she was, and the dress fit her wonderfully, accentuating her petite waist and well-proportioned figure. Her skin was as flawless and smooth and glass, her hair shining darkly in the moonlight that streamed in through the windows (they only had very dim lighting to add to the effect of the dungeon).

Sasuke didn't feel as if he was deserving to look at her. She was just too perfect. And she was the one that he loved more than life itself.

And one day, she would be his.

***

Hinata walked into the shop and saw Sasuke's back, a red devil tail sticking out of the back of his pants. She blushed and waited for him to notice her. When he finally turned around, Hinata was at a loss for words.

He was so handsome. And dare she say it . . . _sexy_. The outfit that he was wearing emphasized his figure, and his tight, leather pants (which only the right kind of people could pull off) made her blush even further than she was already blushing. The horns and tail were exactly as she pictured them, and his interpretation of a devil costume blew hers out of the water. He was like a Greek god or someone who would be called upon to model for a painting.

Hinata's heart started beating terribly fast, and she stumbled to find words to say. Finally she just squeaked out "H-Happy Halloween S-Sasuke-kun."


	11. party time and toasts

I'M SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand if you guys hate me for not uploading a chapter for so long! But I'm back and I'm going to try and update more often! I'm going to try for every couple of weeks. I hope you'll stay with me!! *bows again*

I'm sorry if the costumes are a little . . . cliché or predictable, but I just thought up of what I think the characters would wear as costumes depending on their personalities. :P

P.S.: I forgot to add Shikamaru to the list in the last chapter, but don't fear! He's coming! (I know. I'm a horrible person for forgetting Shika! *hugs Shika* (Shika: What the-!?))

And hey. What do you guys think of the pairing KakaIru (Kakashi and Iruka)? Because personally, I love it, and I was just wondering if any of you liked it too?

STORY START:

There were a couple of awkward seconds passing between Sasuke and Hinata while standing there. Both were just staring at each other, not bothering to make a move or say a word. Both were at a loss for words at how the other looked. Sasuke tried a couple times to speak, but only air would come out, and he soon decided to give up.

Hinata was blushing like mad and was about to try to speak when, of course, who else barges through the door but Kakashi.

"Happy Halloween!" Kakashi came in the door in a flourish of black robes, swinging a gleaming (and REAL) scythe through the air. His black robes had a hood on them that he had up at the moment, and he was wearing socks and gloves that had skeleton feet/hand bones on them that glowed softly in the dark. "How are the two of you doing?"

Sasuke was the first to snap back into reality and looked at Kakashi with the heat of a thousand suns in his eyes. "Hn. I'm guessing that you're the grim reaper?"

"No Sasuke, I'm the tooth fairy. Of COURSE I'm the grim reaper."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and his eyebrow twitched. "And why do you have a real scythe? Someone could get hurt!"

Kakashi, as per usual, didn't pay attention to him and just started gushing over Hinata. "Oh Hinata! You look so cute!"

"T-Thank you K-Kakashi-sensei." Her mind was still slightly hazy from the "moment", if you could even call it that, with Sasuke, but she tried her best to act normal. It was hard though with her face feeling like it was boiling hot. "I-I should make s-sure that everything is r-ready!" Hinata hurried off to the other side of the shop, and Sasuke was left there to glare at Kakashi with every inch of hate in his body.

"Sasuke. Remember what I said to you before. Be careful." Sasuke's shut his eyes and turned his head. Kakashi looked at him as if bored, but when the young devil opened his eyes again, could see a hint of what looked like worry in his eyes. Kakashi eyes closed softly and he murmured to himself, almost not loud enough for Sasuke to hear. "I just hope that this party won't end with anyone getting hurt."

* * *

Soon enough, people started spilling in through the doors of The Coffee Shop. The first people to arrive were Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru. Naruto entered into the shop in a boom of robes and furs, Kiba following closely behind him with Akamaru and Shino.

"Hello everyone! Your king is here!" Naruto posed with his arms outstretched and a regal grin slapped across his face. He was wearing a detailed and surprisingly authentic looking king outfit, complete with a big crown that was worn slightly to the side. His costume consisted of many layers of blue, red, and gold shirts, vests, jackets, gaudy gold necklaces, a golden scepter, and a large, trailing robe. Oh, and almost everything was finished off with a fur trim. "You may bow before me!" He opened his eyes to see that only Kakashi and Sasuke were standing there, their eyes wide and brows furrowed in confusion and surprise. Sasuke's eye twitched at how ridiculous Naruto looked.

Kiba stepped out from behind Naruto, pushing him to the side and raising his hand in hello. "Hey. What's up?" Kiba was dressed in ragged clothing, ripped everywhere and with some fake blood here and there. His fangs were prominent in his smile, he had a fake pair of wolf ears on, and he had some extra tuffs of fake hair on his arms and face. He was obviously a werewolf.

Akamaru pranced out from behind his legs, his tail wagging in happiness. He was adorned with a small pair of black bat wings, and on his head was a pair of fake bat ears. He smelled the air and quickly scurried off into the back of the shop.

Shino simply nodded to Sasuke and Kakashi, his clothing all white and his body and hair dusted with white powder, giving him a ghostly appearance.

"Hn." Sasuke looked at them with slight disgust and turned away, trying to find Hinata. Kakashi rubbed his temples with his hand and looked to Naruto.

"Do you have to be so loud?"

"Hush, simple country peasant folk! I am your lord and king! Bow to me!"

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched. Suddenly he put a plastic smile on his face and pointed his scythe to Naruto. "Hey, this is a real scythe Naruto. Cool, isn't it? Do you wanna see it up close?"

* * *

After Kakashi chased Naruto around the shop with the scythe for a couple minutes with Kiba laughing his head off in the corner and Shino standing in silence, more people started to show up.

"Can you people never be quiet for just five minutes? It's so troublesome." Shikamaru stepped through the door and straightened his black top hat and black bowtie. He was dressed as a ring master, and had a whip strapped to his belt. He wore a black jacket with coattails that went over his shirt which was a clear red color, and his khaki pants were tucked into his high black boots. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared with boredom while Kakashi hit Naruto on the head for being such an idiot.

"Ow! Kakashi, cut it out!" Naruto rubbed his head gently, straightened his crown, and waved to Shika and Choji, who bounced in with a big smile on his face and a chef costume on his body, complete with the puffy while hat and a ladle swinging in his hands.

"Hi guys!" Choji smiled warmly and made a B-line for the table of food, licking his lips in eagerness. "Mmmmm! I can't wait to try Hinata's cooking! . . . Hey, where is Hinata?"

Naruto and Kiba looked at each other and shrugged. "Beats me. I thought she worked here."

"H-Hello everyone! I'm g-glad you could m-make it." Hinata finally scuttled out from behind the counter (where she had been huddled up in a fetal position and calming down) and made her way to where the boys were standing. She held Akamaru in her arms and was scratching him softly behind the ears.

"Hi Hinata! Looks like Akamaru is enjoying himself!"

Hinata smiled warmly at her team mates, Choji, and Shikamaru, and turned to Naruto. "H-Hi Naruto. I like y-your costume."

Naruto smiled. "Hey Hinata! Wow, you look . . . awesome!"

Hinata smiled back at him and nodded, trying to get some more cold wind to breeze across her face and cool her off. She was happy that he thought that she looked good, and a while ago, she would have melted form happiness and died right on the spot. However, she had gotten over Naruto, and there was another certain boy who had her heart now. She took the compliment as a compliment between friends and smiled sweetly. "T-Thank you Naruto-kun! You l-look good t-too."

* * *

Sasuke walked into the room to see Hinata talking to Naruto. That wouldn't have been a problem (since he knew that her feelings for him had gone away), but Naruto was staring at Hinata like the angel that she was. Sasuke found himself getting very hot in his devil costume and stomped over to where they were standing. Hell was going to freeze two times over before he let Naruto get close to her.

"Hey. Baka. Why don't you make yourself useful and go outside to make sure people can find the shop."

"What!? But this isn't even my party! Why don't you do it?"

Sasuke glared icily at Naruto and gritted his teeth. "Because I need to tend to the guests in here."

"N-Naruto-kun, I would appreciate it if y-you would go and h-help. The more help t-the better!" Hinata smiled warmly at Naruto, and this caused Sasuke's blood to boil even more.

"Ok Hinata! Since you asked so nicely." Naruto straightened his crown, shot an annoyed look at Sasuke, and marched out the door in a gallant stroll complete with a dramatic sweep of his cape. As soon as he was outside, Hinata let out a sigh and furrowed her brow, looking at the devil beside her.

"Sasuke-kun, must you be so . . . mean?"

"Hn." Sasuke closed his eyes and walked away, leaving Hinata to stand there, petting Akamaru and feeling lonely, wishing that she had stayed under the counter.

* * *

Within the next hour or so, everyone had arrived at the party. Gaara arrived dressed as a smooth, handsome, Victorian-style vampire, and Temari and Kankuro traveled behind him, dressed as a punk-style Alice from Alice In Wonderland and a Voodoo doll complete with a stitched-together appearance and needles (fake, of course) sticking out everywhere, respectively. When they arrived, Hinata ceased feeling lonely and was able to talk to Gaara and complement him on his costume, though her mind was never far from the distressed devil roaming along the outskirts of the party.

"Gaara-kun, can I ask you a question?" When he nodded his head, she continued. "Well, Sasuke is acting weird." She wrung her hands together and looked at the floor. "Is there anything you would possibly know that would help me get him to be . . . h-happier?" Gaara considered telling her what he knew about how Sasuke felt, but decided against it and simply shook his head. It was not his place to go telling Hinata anything about the situation. If the two were really going to work out as a couple one day in the future, they would need to learn how to cheer each other up by themselves.

The next people to come in were Asuma, who was dressed as a spooky skeleton, and Kurenai, who was decked out as Little Red Riding Hood, holding a basket and the red hood covering her hair and upper-part of her face. Following them came Tenten and Neji. Tenten came in with her head held high and showing off her elaborate pirate costume and sword. Neji, of course, didn't flaunt his costume, but kept his own sword at his side. His samurai costume was loose and flowing, and his hair was back in a ponytail.

Everyone was having a good time when the somewhat quiet party was interrupted twice by two very loud pairs of people that arrived. The first pair was Sakura and Ino, who were arguing and spitting at each other because they had both decided to be witches, so they accidentally "matched". Sakura's downward-slanted eyebrows made her forehead look even bigger, which Ino didn't fail at pointing out, making Sakura blush in rage and pull her hat down farther. This was followed by a crack from Sakura about how she was surprised that a pig like Ino could even fit into a costume, which sent Ino marching off to the other side of the room.

The second pair to arrive shot through the door like a bullet and stood in the middle of the room in heroic poses. "Never fear! The Supermen are here!!" Rock Lee and Gai flashed silver smiles and gave thumbs up as they moved around the room in their matching spandex Superman costumes, complete with capes. "Superman is so youthful! It was an obvious choice to be Superman! Right Lee?"

"That's right Gai-sensei! The power of youth lives on!!"

Hinata looked at Lee and Gai striking poses and smiled. They were always so funny! Now the only people left to come were the judges for the contest, who would arrive later on since they had other duties to complete. Her smile slowly slipped off her face as she scanned the crowd for Sasuke. She saw Choji eating with Shika, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, and Naruto, but no Sasuke. She saw Gaara and Neji leaning (somewhat) next to each other on the wall, but there was no Sasuke in sight there either.

The lights were dim and music started pumping through the speakers. She saw Kakashi, Azuma, and Kurenai managing the music, and saw an argument going on between musical tastes. Close by, Sakura and Ino had gotten together for round 2 of their fight and were glaring at each other, trying not to break the shop in their rage.

The party was a big hit and everyone was having a fantastic time . . . well, except for a certain angel and a certain devil.

Hinata sipped at a glass of punch before taking another plate of hors d'œuvres out of the oven. The wings and halo were starting to annoy her a bit, but for the sake of the costume's appearance, she kept them on.

"Don't those wings get annoying after a while?" Hinata looked over to see Sasuke coming behind the counter to help her load the food onto the plates. She was about to question where he had been, but decided not to. She was just happy that he was back in her sights and still in his costume.

"W-Well they do, actually. I was t-thinking about taking them off."

"You shouldn't."

"Huh?"

Sasuke looked jokingly peeved about having to repeat himself. "I said, 'you shouldn't'. They suit you."

Hinata looked at him for a second before smiling her usual blushing-smile and focused her attention again on the food. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun." For some reason she felt really giddy about what he had just said to her. The two silently put together more plates of food, but it wasn't an awkward silence that passed between them. It was a silence where they didn't need to talk because they were comfortable just being around each other.

Soon the rest of the hors d'œuvres were prepared and Sasuke carried them out to the tables while Hinata cleaned the counter quickly and secretly shot glances at Sasuke's back as he walked away.

* * *

Neji could see that Hinata was alone again now that Sasuke left from behind the counter, so he took this opportunity to talk to her. Hiashi had asked him to check up on Hinata every now and then, but that wasn't the reason why he wanted to talk with her. He just hadn't seen much of her lately, so he thought that it was overdue.

"Hello Hinata."

"Oh, h-hello Neji-niisan!"

"How have you been going? I have not been able to sit and talk with you for a while."

"O-Oh, I'm sorry! I've j-just been r-really busy."

"It seems that the shop is doing very well here. No doubt that is because of you." Neji smiled lightly as Hinata let out a short giggle.

"N-Nonsense, Neji-niisan! It was all of o-our combined efforts p-put together!"

Even though Neji always seemed very cold and off-putting to people, there were still people who we really cared about to his core. And one of those people was Hinata. She was a breath of fresh air in the Hyuuga family because of her good nature and pleasant demeanor. His thoughts darkened for a moment while thinking about when she got a boyfriend and got married and how she would be even less available to socialize with. The top two targets that he had were Sasuke and Gaara, which were two of the reasons why he came to the party. Even though he wasn't 100% sure about any feelings of romance or love between the three of them, he had seen Hinata talking to them, and that was enough to have the two boys' names permanently on his black list. No one was going to bother Hinata while he was around. Especially little punk know-it-all ninjas like Sasuke and Gaara.

"It looks like you're having a good time working here."

"H-Hai. I'm r-really having . . . fun." Hinata smiled genuinely and her gaze drifted around the room, looking at each face that was there. She really was having a lot of fun at the shop. Her eyes lingered for a short moment on Sasuke, who was trying to get Naruto to stop taking all the dip for himself, but her attention quickly returned to Neji so that he didn't think that there was something wrong.

"Well, I'm happy that you're happy Hinata. That's all that I could ask for." Hinata heard the sincerity in Neji's voice and smiled broadly, her cheeks turning a happy shade of pink.

"Thank you, Neji-niisan." They both embraced for a short moment before the sibling-like cousins went their separate ways, Neji to talk with TenTen and Hinata to find Akamaru and give him his dinner before everyone else ate.

She didn't stutter. Neji smirked to himself and continued walking. She must really belong here.

* * *

"My loyal subjects! I propose . . . a toast!" Naruto stood on the chair at the head of one of the long dinner tables that had been set up and regally raised his goblet (which he had brought himself to match his costume) of grape juice. No one paid him any mind and went on eating their dinner, which Hinata and Sasuke had put out about 10 minutes ago. Naruto's eyebrows formed a 'V' shape. "Helloooooooo! I'm trying to make a toast here!"

Sasuke, who was sitting at the opposite head of the table from Naruto (also next to Hinata, which he made sure would happen), spooned some potatoes into his mouth, chewed slowly, swallowed, and wiped his mouth with his napkin, showing off his Uchiha table manners. "Get off the chair, idiot. You're going to break it."

"Wha- Why you- are you saying that I'm fat!?" Naruto sputtered out insulting words at Sasuke for a minute before calming down and again acting like the King that he was pretending to be. "Hohoho. Oh, peasant Sasuke, hold your tongue in the presence of a King." Sasuke made a rude gesture to him, but this time Naruto didn't let it bother him . . . on the outside. "Well, as I was saying, I propose a toast! Everyone raise your glasses!"

Eventually, after much un-King-like begging from Naruto, everyone complied with his wishes and raised their glasses. Naruto cleared his throat loudly and began. "My loyal subjects, we are gathered here today at this party to celebrate Halloween. Everything has been awesome, including the food and the atmosphere, and I would like to thank a few people." There were small smiles and nods going around the table. "First of all, I would like to thank Kakashi for letting us use The Coffee Shop to have this party. It's the best coffee shop in Konoha!" There were mutterings of agreement and Kakashi smiled and raised his glass higher into the air. "Secondly, I would like to thank Hinata for all of her hard work on the decorations and the food, and for being one of the greatest hostesses ever as well as being the epitome of the word 'angel!'" Everyone voiced their agreement to that. Hinata sat in her chair feeling her face heat up to a dangerous degree from all of the attention and from being called an angel from her old crush. Sasuke, as angry as he was that Naruto had said that about Hinata, had to agree and made sure to raise his glass even higher, saying thanks to Hinata as he did it (which, incidentally, make Hinata blush even more). "And finally, to everyone who came here today to celebrate this wonderful holiday with us! . . . Oh, and Sasuke too." Sasuke frowned deeply as everyone laughed, but was put at more ease when everyone looked his way and nodded, saying their thanks for his help. Even though he didn't like most of these people on a daily basis, he guessed that once in a while they could all be pretty cool people.

Naruto smiled widely, giving Sasuke a look with his eyes that said 'just kidding', and commanded attention again. "Hey! Eyes back up here!" When everyone finally settled down, he raised his glass once again. "Thanks for all the work Kakashi, Hinata, and Sasuke, and thanks everyone else for coming! Kanpai!"

A chorus of 'Kanpai!' came from around the room from the different tables, and everyone drank deeply from their cups, even Sasuke and Gaara who would normally just take a dignified sip from their glasses. As Naruto sat down again people applauded him and complemented his toast, making him smile again, his blue eyes lighting up even in the dim light. Hinata smiled a genuinely large smile and looked at Naruto. He was definitely an amazing person. She understood why at one time she was in love with him.


	12. bread and drunk Kakashi

**ANNOUNCEMENTS!!**

Let me start out by saying YES, I _know_ that my last update probably wasn't long enough to make up for my long absence. And I apologize for that! I just thought that it would be better to put that last chapter up while I was thinking of it so as to not risk completely forgetting about it! :B

So I had started to type up the next chapter on Monday, but then on Wednesday my computer got a virus, and on top on not being able to write any more of the chapter, everything (and I mean _everything_) on my computer got erased when we had to wipe my comp clean and start all over again.

So I'm sorry if this is a week or so late :/

Oh, and hey, what do you guys think of same-sex couples for this fic? Let me know. (Don't worry, I won't do anything bad! I just want to know! I'm still debating whether I want to use one or not . . .)

But thanks to all of you who read my story and review/favorite/watch my little SasuHina fic, I will never forget again! It means so much to me that you guys do that stuff for me. Really, I love you all. And I mean that!

Oh, and since I got some messages about it, this story is now being deemed as _slightly_ AU. Because I still talk about things from the Naruto universe, but I don't completely focus on them . . . and Superman doesn't exist in the NU, I'm pretty sure. xD

So, without further ado . . .

STORY START:

The rest of dinner when by without a hitch. Naruto's toast had put everyone in a very good mood, and even Sasuke was contently sitting and eating without his usual scowl on his face.

"Lee! Please pass me the bread of eternal youth!!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei! But only if you pass me the carrots of everlasting truth!"

"With this extra strength, we shall save the earth from the tyranny of evil!" Gai and Lee stood up and struck "heroic" poses, much to the horror and amusement of those around them. Ino and Sakura had stopped their bickering and were talking pleasantly, albeit still a bit stiffly, about other things (such as boys). Naruto, obviously trying to show off, was eating as much as his belly could hold, and Kiba had soon joined in to make sure that Naruto's ego didn't inflate any more than it already had. Shino was standing close by ready to help if there were any exploding stomachs or puking, and Chouji just sat with Shikamaru (who was dozing off, top-hat lying strategically over his eyes to keep out the light) close by, not sharing any words but looking happy nonetheless munching on his dinner and being around his friends. (Shino was about to point out to Naruto and Kiba that Chouji could put them away as far as an eating contest went, but thought it was better for them to learn their lesson. So he played the waiting game until someone got ill, which was a given in this situation.)

Kankuro and Temari were minding their own businesses, talking and fighting as siblings often do. Gaara had left the table to go to the bathroom. Neji sat next to TenTen, and the two of them were talking pleasantly about weapons and new jutsus that they had read about, TenTen looking excited and blushing the slightest bit while Neji just looked happy to be having an intelligent conversation with someone. Kurenai, Kakashi, and Azuma had all gotten bored in their wait for the judges to arrive, and had therefore became buzzed (Kakashi had sneaked in alcohol, much to Hinata's horror and Sasuke's annoyance), and were at the present moment standing outside The Coffee Shop, waving at everyone who passed by and cat-calling.

Sasuke sighed in annoyance at the three "role-models", and instead turned to talk to Hinata. He turned his head only to come face-to-face with a basket of bread. He jumped slightly in surprise, but soon regained his cool-composure and looked at Hinata, who was the one holding it.

"Sasuke-kun, w-would you like a piece of b-bread?"

Sasuke nodded and went to take the basket from her. In the process, his fingers brushed over Hinata's and he allowed himself to hold them there for a split second, feeling her flesh against his, before taking the basket out of her hands and grabbing a small loaf from inside. He took a bite of it and looked to Hinata. "Did you make this bread from scratch, Hinata?"

"W-Well, I tried. I-I'm not sure h-how it turned out, t-though." Hinata blushed a bit and stuttered. _Does he not like it? Is it not fluffy enough? Oh no . . . _A litany of thoughts rushed though her head, and it took everything that she had not to grab the bread from Sasuke's hands and throw it in the garbage.

When she looked back at Sasuke, to her surprise he had finished the bread and was reaching for another loaf. "It's very good Hinata. You really have a gift for this sort of thing." He smirked as Hinata's eyes dashed up to meet his.

"Y-You really think so?"

"Of course."

"S-Sasuke-kun . . ." Hinata's heart beat faster and she blushed a deep crimson, but her smile was unparalleled at that moment. She was in bliss that he had paid her such a large compliment. She found herself thinking that it was strange. If anyone else had told her that same compliment, she would have smiled politely and been happy with it. But when Sasuke told this to her, her heart soared.

Sasuke's smirk widened as he watched her face glow. In the dim light her halo and wings gave off a soft white light and created light shadows on her face. The way that she could be so talented and not realize it was just one more thing that he loved about her.

_This is her. This is the girl that I love. Hinata. I've never been so sure of anything else in my life._ Sasuke's devilish smirk turned into a small smile.

* * *

"Hello everyone! Sorry we're late!" All heads turned when a booming voice was heard from the front door. Tsunade walked in in all of her glory, costume-less except for a tail poking out of her clothing and a pair of cat ears standing proudly on her head. Jiraiya sauntered in after her, face plastered into a smile and dressed as a doctor. (Sasuke found this innocent enough for the perverted ninja until he thought about the fact that doctors perform physical examinations on people and things of the like. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. _Pervert_. He made a pact right then that if Jiraiya got anywhere near Hinata he would make sure that he sent him to a _real_ doctor.) Iruka shuffled in after them holding a clipboard, his mummy costume looking well-put together while some of the strips of gauze trailed on the floor while he walked.

Kakashi hurried in after the trio and started announcing things in a slurred voice. He was obviously more than buzzed. "Hey everyone! The . . . the . . . judges are here! Iruka! Looking good!" Kakashi stood by Iruka and slapped him on the back sharply, causing Iruka to lean forward and groan in pain.

"H-Hello Iruka-sensei. J-Jiraiya-sensei. Hokage-s-sama." Hinata took it upon herself to greet the judges since Kakashi was . . . not prepared to act as host at the moment. "H-How has your H-Halloween been?"

"Hello, Miss Hyuuga. Our rounds have been very good, yes. But we were most excited to come here, to tell the truth. And by the looks of it, we were right to be excited. You really don't disappoint." Tsunade smiled down at Hinata, who smiled back a pleasant smile.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, where's the booze? I see Kakashi has already gotten into it!" Jiraiya looked around for a bottle while Kakashi slumped even farther over onto Iruka, who was trying his hardest to support him while still keeping his distance.

Tsunade shot Jiraiya a look. "Shut up, Jiraiya. We're here to judge, not get drunk . . . although maybe later we can have a glass of sake."

"Ssssssake? Woohoo!" Kakashi waved his hands in the air and lost so much balance that Iruka couldn't keep him up anymore. The two crumpled into a heap on the floor and Sasuke took this opportunity to intervene. He ran over and shoved Kakashi off of Iruka, giving Iruka a hand getting up.

"Thank you, Sasuke. Do you have a back room that you can put him in or something? I think he needs to lie down."

"I'll get on that, Iruka-sensei. Hey! Baka!"

Naruto's head popped up when he heard Sasuke call. "Yeah?"

"Help me move Kakashi into the back room. He's out like a light." (Sasuke chuckled to himself that Naruto had just responded to the name "Baka", but decided to just wait for him to realize it instead of pointing it out himself.)

Naruto got up and walked over to where Sasuke was standing and was about to bend down to grab Kakashi's feet when he realized that Sasuke had called him "Baka", and that he had quickly responded to it as if it was him own name. His face contorted. "Screw you, Sasuke."

Sasuke chuckled again and grabbed Kakashi under the arms, hoisting him up with the help of Naruto. "Hinata, I'll leave you to making the judges comfortable until I get back." Hinata nodded at Sasuke and got on her job while Sasuke and Naruto worked together to lift the large body of Kakashi all the way into the back room.

* * *

Hinata took care of showing the judges around and giving them food, being the good hostess that she is. She talked a bit with Iruka about how school was going and how the young ninjas were fairing.

"Oh, they're a good bunch of kids."

"A-are they trying hard?"

"Most of them are, but there are of course the kids who just slack off and expect to get everywhere."

"A-ah."

"I wish I had more people like you and Sasuke in my classes this year. You both were very good students . . . though you were much more pleasant, Hinata."

"Thank you, I-Iruka-sensei!" Hinata smiled and took the compliment with great ease. She seems to have grown accustomed to getting compliments lately.

"You're quite welcome, Hinata." Iruka smiled back at her and excused himself to go to the restroom. Hinata waved slightly as he left, and suddenly saw that Gaara was standing on the other side of the room looking rather bored. She looked to see that his siblings had took it upon themselves to take over he music since the teachers weren't sober enough to do it, so Hinata walked over to where Gaara was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, running his tongue periodically across his pair of fake fangs.

"Hello Gaara-kun!"

"Hello, Hinata. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm doing well, thank you. Are you . . . bored?"

"Yes, slightly. There's no one to talk to. At least, no one who would not be afraid of me."

"Y-You're not scary, Gaara-kun!"

Gaara chuckled deeply. "Maybe not to you, Hinata, but to others I am like the boogieman." Hinata looked really worried and Gaara sighed. He hated to see her worried about him. "But, you know, I could try and talk to someone."

Hinata brightened up considerably. "Well, I'm sure we can find you someone to talk to, Gaara-kun!" Her eyes scanned the room looking for someone. Sakura and Ino were out of the question, since Gaara would probably kill them as soon as they spoke. They had that kind of effect on people like Gaara. Other people were deep in conversation with their comrades, and no one seemed to be alone . . . except for one boy in a spandex costume and a cape, sitting in a chair uncharacteristically patiently, waiting for something. Hinata tapped a finger on her bottom lip in thought, and decided that it was worth a shot. They knew each other, didn't they?

"I'll be right back, Gaara-kun."

Gaara nodded and closed his eyes. He preferred to let what she was doing be a surprise to him. He needed to keep things interesting, after all.

Minutes later, Hinata came back. Gaara could sense that she was coming with someone else, and opened his eyes. His eyes burned at the bright blue suit that he was staring into, and quickly averted his eyes to look at Hinata's soothing white eyes instead.

"Gaara-kun, this is Lee-kun. Do you know each other?"

"Ah! I remember you! I've fought with you before!" Rock Lee looked excited and pointed a finger at Gaara.

". . . hn."

Hinata gulped. Gaara's answer was not a good one. She started re-thinking bringing Rock Lee over to talk to Gaara. Yes, Lee had been sitting alone waiting for Gai-sensei to come back from checking up on Kakashi, and Gaara had also been alone, but they really didn't have much in common. She panicked even more at the thought that Gaara may try and kill Lee if he talked too much!

Hinata was about to intervene when Gaara cleared his throat. ". . . Hello, Lee." Gaara had seen, once again, how worried Hinata was and decided to give Lee at least a little chance. For Hinata.

* * *

Hinata stood in the corner pleasantly, Sasuke at her side. They were surveying the party, making sure that everything was going well. And it was! Gaara and Lee, much to Hinata's happiness, had been talking for a while now. Of course Lee was taking over much of the conversation, but Gaara seemed to be less tense than he was, and was saying a few words here and there, nodding and shaking his head when appropriate.

Everyone else was also having a good time and were talking and having fun. They had already cleaned up all of the food and garbage, and now the party just consisted of people talking and socializing, the music still playing softly in the background. Sasuke and Hinata made eye contact and smiled (or in Sasuke's case _smirked_) at each other, pleased with how the party had turned out. However, it was getting close to the time when they would have to end the party. The judges would be leaving very soon, and Kakashi and the other sensei needed to get home and rest, leaving the children without much parental supervision whatsoever. Not that the kids would mind that, but Tsunade wanted everyone to stay safe.

"Alright kids! We'll be off now, which means that the party will have to end here."

"Awwwwww, come _on_! Do we have to?" Naruto pursed his lips and pouted, but it had absolutely no effect on her decision.

Iruka frowned at his old student. "Yes. Safety is our main concern, and we don't want anything bad to happen." When Jiraiya didn't say anything, Iruka nudged him in the ribs. Jiraiya came back into reality and grunted a quick something that sounded like an agreement. The other sensei had all come together near the door, all far from being sober, and all being escorted home by the judges. They were in a heap, all giggling and having a good time, not at all noticing that all the kids were pointing at them and whispering. The kids would have brought them home, but no one knew what the drunken sensei were capable of, so it was safer to just have the judges take them home.

Hinata stepped forward and put on an award winning smile. "T-Thank you for c-coming! We look forward t-to finding out w-who won the c-contest! Please m-make sure that the s-sensei get h-home safely!"

The three judges smiled down at Hinata (Jiraiya doing so a bit creepily, which made Sasuke jump into defense mode), and sauntered out through the front door with one last wave, tugging the other adults behind them.

There was a silence throughout The Coffee Shop as everyone stared at the door.

The silence carried over into a second minute.

"MY LOYAL SUBJECTS! AFTER-PARTY AT MY HOUSE!!"


End file.
